Ashdod – Just before 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night, a man in his 70’s was at his home on Ha’Atzmaut Street in Ashdod, when he suddenly collapsed. His frantic family members called emergency services for help. The worried family members followed the guidelines of the dispatch and began performing a guided CPR via the instructions they received from the dispatcher. 

At the same time as the guided CPR was taking place, United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command center issued an alert to the closest emergency medical personnel in the area.  

 

Within two minutes, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Tal Mor arrived and took over the CPR effort. Tal had been relaxing in his home nearby and was enjoying the evening with his family when he received the alert. He promptly dropped everything and rushed to the incident on his emergency electric bicycle. 

 

Tal found the elderly man in a state of unconsciousness with no pulse nor any signs of breathing. The family told Tal that the man has a background of heart conditions and respiratory  illnesses. They added that he had felt a bit unwell earlier in the day but hadn’t thought much of it. 

 

Tal quickly connected a defibrillator and began compressions on the man in front of the distraught family. As Tal was performing his first round of compressions, another United Hatzalah volunteer, paramedic Tal Flax, rushed in and joined the effort to save this man’s life. Together the pair first responders continued their efforts providing advanced life support in the hopes of successfully resuscitating the man. 

 

Tal Flax had just entered Ashdod when he received the alert notifying about the emergency. Thus it only took him a few minutes on his ambucycle to reach the given address. He administered an advanced airway adjunct and medications intravenously. Tal and Tal continued their efforts for a few minutes by themselves until a mobile intensive care ambulance was able to arrive. 

 

When the ICU staff came inside the combined team continued their resuscitative efforts and administered medications for 15 minutes until they managed to regain a pulse. After the exhaustive effort in the stifling night heat, Tal Flax reflected on the incident and commented, “Despite the heat and the fatigue of performing a lengthy CPR with a few number of first responders, it was all worth it to save a life.”

Tal Mor credited Tal Flax for his efforts in the successful CPR that resulted in saving the life of the 74-year-old man. “The advanced resuscitation of paramedic Flax was one of the main reasons we were capable of saving this man’s life. Without the special United Hatzalah equipment and medications that Tal provided, the man’s chances of survival would have been much lower.”

 

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