On a recent Friday at around 2 P.M., a woman in her 90s experienced cardiac arrest at her house in Carmiel.

Yisrael Frankel, a volunteer EMT with United Hatzalah, was in the midst of last-minute Shabbat shopping when he was alerted to a nearby emergency. Without hesitation, he abandoned his shopping and rapidly responded on his ambucycle. Frankel expertly navigated through traffic, arriving at the patient’s residence in an impressive under three-minute response time.

A concerned relative led Frankel to the room where the woman was lying motionless, gasping for air, and without a pulse. Moshe Cohen, another United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, arrived moments later and corroborated the absence of a pulse. The duo promptly initiated CPR and communicated the critical situation to United Hatzalah’s Command and Dispatch Center.

A paramedic and an advanced life support ambulance team soon arrived at the scene as the volunteers were performing chest compressions. Confirming the absence of a pulse, the paramedic instructed the team to persist with CPR while she connected the heart monitor.

After a few rounds of CPR, the monitor detected that the patient’s heart had restarted, initially showing a pulse of around 30 beats per minute, which gradually increased to approximately 60 beats per minute. Although the patient’s breathing also resumed, it remained slow and irregular, with an oxygen saturation of about 75%. To support respiration, the medical team administered oxygen.

With a restored pulse and assisted breathing, the team maintained vigilant care during the transfer of the patient to the intensive care ambulance, which promptly transported her to the hospital for further treatment.

“I am so grateful that we were able to revive the patient,” expressed Frankel after the incident. “Even though I wasn’t able to buy what I needed, going into Shabbat after helping to save a life is an incredible privilege.”