On Thursday evening, May 13, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Avi Nafoussi was visiting a family member in the town of Neve Michael for dinner. At around 8:00 PM, United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center alerted Avi to an emergency nearby. The emergency was labeled as an asthma attack, and since a member of his family is asthmatic, Avi knew how crucial getting there quickly would be.
He rushed over to the given address and arrived in under a minute to be first at the scene. He found a 15-year-old boy lying unconscious on the floor. A quick vitals check found that the boy had lost his pulse. Avi launched into full-blown CPR as additional EMTs began arriving at the scene.
After several rounds of chest compressions and assisted ventilation, the 15-year-old boy’s pulse returned and was lost a total of three times before the ambulance arrived at the scene. Avi was later told that the ambulance team had fought for the boy’s pulse the whole way to the nearest hospital in Jerusalem. The CPR continued into the ICU, where the boy, in critical condition, was attached to a ventilator.
On Monday evening, just as the Shavout holiday had ended, Avi was notified that a miracle had happened, and Yonatan, his young patient, had woken up. This week on Monday afternoon, together with Bet Shemesh chapter head of United Hatzalah David Leff, Avi went to the hospital to visit Yonatan.
“We came to encourage Yonatan but we were encouraged by him,” commented David Leff. “Seeing Yonatan standing on his own two feet, and speaking to us, was an incredible and uplifting experience. It was one of the moments that give us volunteers the strength to drop whatever we are doing and rush out to save a life, even if it means getting out of bed in the middle of the night, or leaving the Shabbat table in the middle of a meal.”
During their visit, Avi and David explained to Yonatan how they fought in an attempt to save his life. Yonatan told Avi and David he had been out riding his bike when he felt faint and couldn’t breathe until he completely lost consciousness and collapsed. Yonatan thanked the EMTs profusely for saving his life.
“Visiting Yonatan in the hospital was an important moment for me, as an EMT,” said Avi. “Sometimes, responding to emergencies as an EMT is not always easy, both physically and mentally. But those small moments, like going to see Yonatan in the hospital, are what keeps me going, reminding me of the miracles I can participate in, all because I am an EMT, so I never give up.”