On Friday afternoon, an 18-year-old boy suddenly suffered from a seizure, sprawling out on the sidewalk of KK”L Street in Ashdod.
A few kilometers away, Gavriel Momko and Dor Fridman were on an ambucycle shift, riding around the city ready to respond to any medical emergency.
As soon as the pair of first responders received the notification about the boy they rushed to the scene and arrived in a few short minutes. The 18-year-old boy was lying on the floor writhing in pain, his arms and legs flailing. The EMTs recognized this as an indication of an active tonic-clonic convulsion. Upon closer inspection, Dor realized the boy was also hyperventilating at an excessive rate of around 45 breaths per minute. Dor took control of the situation and sat down on the floor next to the boy, holding up the boy’s head so as to prevent injury. In an attempt to comfort the boy, Dor spoke quietly and soothingly to the boy until he managed to relax a little bit.
The mother of the patient rushed to the EMT’s side once the boy calmed down and explained that her son had recently begun suffering from anxiety attacks. He usually experiences them after having a disagreement with someone or after a heated discussion.
“I tried my best to help the boy and improve his situation,” Dor said after the incident, “We knew that an ambulance would not arrive until much later, considering the unusually heavy traffic that day, so it was up to us to help the boy and stabilize his condition until an ambulance could come.”
However, each time Dor managed to calm the boy down and regulate his breathing, it, unfortunately, wouldn’t last long, and the boy would return to a heightened state of stress and once again hyperventilate. When this occurred, every few minutes, Dor would once again start the process of calming the boy.
When the Intensive Care Ambulance arrived around 30 minutes later, the paramedic decided to sedate the boy due to his heightened state of anxiety. The combined team transferred the boy onto the stretcher and he was taken to the Assuta Medical Center for further care.
In a touching Facebook post about the incident, Gavriel says, “Volunteering as an EMT for United Hatzalah excites me time and time again. Especially working shoulder to shoulder alongside Dor, who puts all his efforts into doing his job well to the point where it shows. He treated the boy with such care and sensitivity. I am proud of you bro, proud to work alongside you, proud to be among one of your friends. Well done my dear brother.”
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