On Friday afternoon, a man in his mid-fifties was sitting in his living room in his apartment in Ashdod relaxing, just before Shabbat began. He began to feel constricting pains in his chest, and after a few minutes told his wife that he wasn’t feeling well. He tried to stand up but lost consciousness and collapsed on the floor. His worried wife called emergency services for help.

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Moshe in front of the ambucar

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Moshe Weizman who lives in Ashdod was sitting with some friends having an early Kabbalat Shabbat celebration, when all of sudden his United Hatzalah communications device sounded, alerting him to the medical emergency occurring on Bareket Street, just a few blocks away from where Mosha and his friends were.

 

Moshe, who has been a volunteer EMT for more than a decade, apologized to his friends, who are used to this behavior from Moshe, and ran to his ambucar, flicked on the lights and sirens, and sped to the location of the emergency.

 

Moshe arrived together with another EMT and the pair were the first at the scene. They rushed up the stairs and found the man lying on the living room floor in his apartment. Moshe began compressions as the other EMT attached a defibrillator. They worked in tandem providing assisted ventilation, compressions, and shocks from the defibrillator until the ambulance arrived a short time later. After less than 20 minutes, the man’s pulse came back and he began breathing on his own once again.

 

“I’ve been at this for 11 years, and it never ceases to amaze me how quickly things happen. This man essentially died and was brought back to life in less than half an hour. It took me less than three minutes to arrive at the scene and initiate medical treatment and intervention, and the quick response no doubt played a role in saving his life. For me, it was a short time away from my friends. For this man and his family, it was their whole world being given back to them. To me, that is always astounding.”

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