Nechama and Tom Eisenman live in Ramat Beit Shemesh and are United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs. One week they decided to go up north on a short break with their family for the weekend. On their way to the moshav they were staying at, Nechama realized she had forgotten her bluebird (United Hatzalah’s communication device) but she didn’t worry too much because her husband Tom had brought his.

While up north, early Friday morning, they received an alert from United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center. A man had fallen unconscious at his home. The couple jumped out of bed in a hurry and left to find the address of the unconscious man.

“Since we were in a moshav it was a lot harder to find the address,” said Nechama. “Houses aren’t numbered and neighbors don’t know the numbers of the houses on the moshav either. It took a little longer to find the house, but with the help of the dispatcher we finally found it and we ran inside”

They found the unconscious man. He had stopped breathing and had no pulse. The couple immediately began CPR until a fellow United Hatzalah volunteer arrived and relieved Nechama and took over compressions while Tom provided assisted breathing. “In situations such as these I just start praying, so that’s what I did. I prayed to God that this man be resuscitated,” Nechama explained. The team performed seven rounds of CPR before the man’s pulse finally returned after the seventh round. The man was then transferred to the nearest hospital in an ICU ambulance.

“It was a miracle that we finally got a pulse back,” Nechama exclaimed. “It was really crazy, it seemed that this man was going to die but we kept ongoing. We were determined to do everything we could to save his life.”

After the ambulance left with the patient who now had a viable pulse and would hopefully recover in the hospital, Nechama and Tom returned to their rented house to continue their vacation. The incident may have interrupted their morning sleep, but the feeling of saving a life made their vacation incredibly joyous and memorable.