Just before the end of Tisha B’av on Sunday, United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center received an emergency phone call regarding a man choking in the town of Oranit.
The emergency application automatically alerted David Nagar, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT and ambucycle rider from Sha’arei Tikvah, that he was one of the closest responders to the emergency. Nagar was on his way home and was driving past the Oranit Terminal on Highway 5. As soon as Nagar received the emergency alert he turned towards Oranit and rushed to the address given to him on his app.
When he arrived at the house the choking man’s wife was waiting outside the door and quickly ushered him into the family home where her husband lay unconscious on the floor. The man’s children had begun CPR and were switching places doing compressions on their own father. They were receiving instructions from the dispatch center over the phone.
Nagar immediately attached a defibrillator and then joined the CPR efforts. After the first shock was given by the defibrillator to the patient other EMS volunteers began to arrive and joined in the effort to save the man’s life. Two more shocks were given from the defibrillator. After the third shock was given a foreign object flew out of the man’s mouth. It was the object that had caused the blockage in the man’s throat and the subsequent choking. With the blockage removed the man began to breathe once again.
When the mobile intensive care ambulance arrived they found a stable patient who was semi-conscious. They took him to the hospital for further treatment. At the hospital, the man regained consciousness fully. He is expected to make a full recovery and return to his family in the coming days.
To support the work of volunteers like David click here: