A two-year-old boy who suffers from a chronic heart condition known as VSD on Monday experienced a complication and became unconscious at his home in the northern Muslim town of Deir el-Asad. His terrified mother called emergency services for help, and United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs Mustafa Abed Assadi and Adiv Boqua’ai, and regional paramedic Nissim Zinaty, hurried over to the location on al-Jabal Street.
Mustafa rushed out of his job as system manager for a security system company and was the first responder at the family’s home. As he walked in the door, the boy’s mother presented her son and explained his condition. Mustafa, together with Adiv, who had arrived a minute after him, checked for a pulse and, finding none, began CPR.
After a few rounds of compressions, they managed to get a faint pulse, just enough to allow them to transport the boy in an ambulance from the Hian ambulance company to meet up with Nissim, who was coming in their direction. Nissim administered medications and continued to treat the boy while the ambulance was taking the boy and his mother to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
“I was so thankful that we were able to rescue this boy,” said Mustafa. “He is so young and his whole life is ahead of him. He and his family have already been through a lot in terms of medical issues due to his illness. This certainly wasn’t the first time I left work and responded to an emergency in which CPR was required, but it was incredibly meaningful. It made my entire day.”
Mustafa, who only a few days ago responded to a shooting incident and was only able to save one of the people involved, said that this was some compensation to him for that tragedy. “There’s a lot of violence nowadays and there’s a lot of tragedy,” he said. “It’s uplifting to be able to save a life and add some good into the world.”
Nissim, who was near the Deir el-Asad interchange when the emergency alert came out, decided not to go to work and instead drove into the town to respond to the emergency.
“The team of United Hatzalah volunteers, including Mustafa and Adiv, brought the young boy to me and we rendezvoused with the ICU ambulance from Hian ambulances. I rode with the boy and continued CPR with the ambulance team until we were able to get him completely stabilized while en route to Rambam medical center in Haifa. I must say thank you to United Hatzalah for providing us with the necessary life-saving equipment that they give us. Without it, we would not have been able to save this boy’s life today.”