On Monday morning around 7:30, an older woman suffered a cardiac arrest on Matityahu Street in the town of Gan Yavneh near Ashdod. Worried family members called emergency services for help, and seconds later, United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs Tal Mor and Eran Leibovich received an alert on their communication devices.
Tal was driving down Route 4 on his way to work when the alert came in. He was passing by the Gan Yavneh intersection and was pinged as one of the closest first responders to the scene of the emergency. Tal made a sharp right turn into the town and arrived at the location within 3 minutes. Running through the doorway, he found a family member that was performing CPR on the 80-year-old woman. Tal connected his defibrillator and took over the CPR efforts.
Eran received the alert at home, a few blocks over in town. He had just returned home from dropping off his son at daycare. Without hesitating, he grabbed his car keys, raced back outside, and drove over to the neighboring home, arriving just moments after Tal.
“It always amazes me how things work out,” said Eran. “Today I was working from home, but usually at this hour I’m already headed out to work, far out of town.”
After a few minutes of CPR, two additional EMTs and a paramedic arrived in an intensive care ambulance, increasing the rescue team to five first responders. The combined team put forth incredible efforts to resuscitate the woman. They alternated performing rounds of chest compressions with artificial respiration, while the paramedic administered medications and intubated the woman. Twenty minutes into the resuscitation, the woman finally responded, and a viable pulse was registered. Once the woman was stable enough, she was transported in the ambulance to the nearest hospital for further care.
“I hope she recovers quickly and regains her health,” Tal said after the incident. “I am happy and proud to have once again been a part of another successful resuscitation. Thankfully, we had a good team, worked together well, and the results were positive.”
“It was a tough CPR but thank God, we got through it and successfully brought back a pulse,” said Eran. “The incident energized me this morning and made a really great start for the day. It’s always a great feeling helping others, especially those who are part of my community. I’m just glad I was around to help.”
