On Sunday morning around 8:00, cow number 992 calved in the barn of Beit Hilkia, a Haredi moshav near Gedera in central Israel.
David Yoel, a volunteer medic at United Hatzalah from the Havel Sorek branch, is also the barn manager and was on hand during the calving.
Everyone in the barn was waiting for the exciting moment when the cow would give birth to the cute female calf, and David was supporting the calving process when he noticed that the calf was born without a pulse and wasn’t breathing.
“I manage the barn and I’ve supported a lot of litters. At one time, the barn vet gave us a talk on the problem calving, and based on my experience as a medic in Hatzalah, I knew there was no time to waste,” David said. “I immediately performed resuscitation operations in the calf, including massages, pumping fluids with suction, and respiratory assistance with oxygen, and thank God, she recovered and was saved, and we are happy about that.”
This is the point when the United Hatzalah volunteers share how great it felt to resuscitate a person and know that with their actions they saved a life. Turns out this feeling of elation also comes to EMTs when saving any life, including a baby cow.
