Last week Wednesday in Modi’in, 21 new EMTs graduated their training course with United Hatzalah and began volunteering as EMS responders with the organization in the city and surrounding area. The very next day, Ayelet Telem and Eran Zriker, both graduates of the course, received an emergency alert, headed out, and delivered a baby boy.
The birth took place on Thursday evening at the home of the patient. Telem and Zriker happened to be nearby, each going about their day. They both received the call, rushed to the scene and arrived in less than three minutes from the time that the dispatch center received the emergency call. Telem and Zriker saw that the woman was in the later stages of labor and when they notified dispatch they were told that the ambulance was still a few minutes away. They then prepared to help deliver the baby.
Putting into practice the protocols that they learned in their recently finished course, the pair of EMT volunteers worked in tandem to prepare the woman and the environment for delivery. They assisted the woman through the difficult labor and continued caring for both her and the newly born infant boy until the ambulance arrived. At the request of the ambulance team, Telem was asked to accompany the new mother and infant to the hospital and continue to provide care on the ambulance.
The mother asked to publicly thank the volunteers for their quick response and expert care, without which she would certainly have had a rougher birthing experience.
“The mother gets a lot of the credit,” said Telem. “We assisted wherever we could, but she was the true hero of the story. When we arrived she was very well advanced, and throughout the entire experience, I recalled everything that we had learned and practiced in the course. It was as if I heard the voice of my teachers in my ear during the entire experience.”
Telem added that due to the care she received and the assistance provided by the EMS responders the whole family felt very comfortable. Both the mother and father felt very comfortable with the fact that there was a woman there and with how we were handling the situation. Both I and Eran felt comfortable in the knowledge that we knew what we were doing.” Telem, a mother of two teenagers said that she was overcome with emotion after the incident. “We were all really moved. Both Eran and I were very positively moved that this was our first experience. We are so thankful to the organization for giving us the training, tools, and capacity to be able to help people like this. It brought up many positive memories from my own deliveries and was a truly special experience for me.”
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