On Tuesday evening, a man in his 60s, who was sitting outside of a restaurant on Ben Gurion Street in Givat Shmuel, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and collapsed. Worried bystanders stood frozen and unsure of what to do. One woman, also a bystander, initiated CPR on the collapsed man and told others to call for help.

Prior to the emergency call being received by United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center, United Hatzalah volunteer and Givat Shmuel Chapter Head Yaakov Lorsh passed by on his ambucycle and was flagged down by the eyewitnesses at the scene who began screaming to him to come and help. Yaakov contacted dispatch and relayed that he was initiating CPR on the collapsed man.

He took over performing CPR from the woman and less than 90 seconds later, Dr. Aryeh Jaffe, who was also in close proximity to the incident, arrived and joined the effort to save the man’s life. EMTs Eliyahu Tzarfati and Menachem Slovtitzky also arrived moments later and connected a defibrillator, which advised numerous shocks during the CPR process.

Dr. Jaffe said about the incident: “After numerous minutes of CPR procedure carried out by a combined team of doctors, paramedics, and EMTs, the man’s heart started beating again and as he stabilized he even regained full consciousness. He was then transported to the hospital for further treatment and care.”