Last Sunday just before 2 PM, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Moshe Dayan was visiting his parents in Netanya when he received an emergency alert on his communications device saying a man, 50, had collapsed in a nearby apartment building on the same street.
The man was on medication and drank alcohol, and the dangerous mixture caused him to collapse. Moshe apologized to his parents and raced downstairs to his ambucycle. It took him less than 90 seconds to get to the man who was lying on the floor in his apartment, his face already turning blue.
Moshe didn’t detect a pulse, and so he requested backup and quickly launched into CPR in a desperate attempt to save the man’s life. A minute later, volunteer EMT Avraham Amrani arrived and joined in the CPR efforts.
The two EMTs switched off with rounds of chest compressions and assisted breathing, using their oxygen tank. After five minutes, the man’s pulse returned and he began breathing on his own. The two EMTs remained by the man’s side as he slowly regained consciousness.
A few minutes later, a mobile intensive care unit (MICU) arrived and the crew attached an IV line and checked the man’s vital signs before placing him in the ambulance. Before leaving for the hospital, one of the crew members told Moshe that the man had experienced a severe reaction to the alcohol, and if Moshe had come just a few seconds later, the man would have surely died.
“Sometimes it can literally be a matter of seconds,” said Moshe Dayan. “When a person suffers such a reaction, they have seconds until their body shuts down due to the overdose. I was so close, and I had my ambucycle with all the necessary medical equipment parked right outside, allowing me to arrive in the shortest time possible. With these components on hand, I was able to save a life today.”