On Thursday morning just before 09:00 A.M., two men were injured in a collision between an electric scooter and a bicycle on HaMa’ayan street in Ramat Gan. Panicked bystanders alerted emergency services. 

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yosef Akler, a sales agent by profession, was at work in the vicinity when an alert went off on his communications device. Excusing himself, Yosef dashed to his ambucycle and zipped to the scene with lights and sirens on. 

Arriving first at the scene in just under 2 minutes, the volunteer strategically parked his ambucycle to block incoming traffic and cordon off spectators, creating a safe space for emergency responders to do their jobs. 

The EMT began by assessing the condition of the two patients. According to onlookers, the two vehicles had collided frontally. The cyclist, in his early 50s, was agitated and a little woozy, after falling from his bike and hitting his head without a helmet on. He was in moderate condition. Yosef checked him for signs of internal bleeding, calming and reassuring his patient as he applied a cervical collar in order to limit the effects of the trauma. The rider of the scooter, in his early 20s, had fallen on his right shoulder and was lightly injured. Together with medical personnel who arrived on the scene, the volunteer immobilized his shoulder.

A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived at the scene and together with the ambulance crew, Yosef loaded the cyclist onto a backboard in order to further immobilize his spine. The medical personnel at the scene then placed him in the ambulance to be transported to the nearest hospital for further treatment. Another ambulance transported the rider of the scooter to the hospital. 

“It’s very rewarding to see the sense of relief on the face of the patients when you’re the first emergency responder to arrive at the scene,” said Yosef after the incident. “I have been volunteering with United Hatzalah for seven years because it’s important for me to help people whenever possible. United Hatzalah has given me the tools and the knowledge to do just that.”

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