On Sunday morning around 7:30, an 89-year-old man lost consciousness in his apartment on Sokolov street in Holon. When his caretaker found him unresponsive, he called emergency services for help, and the closest medical volunteers were notified and despatched to the incident.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Avraham Samaora was on his way home from Tel Aviv and driving in the alert area. He stopped his car for a moment on the shoulder of the road and plugged in the address. He took the quickest route to the scene, arriving in just a few minutes.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yitzchak Mougrabi was working in his office nearby. As soon as he was notified of the emergency, he put his work aside and rushed out to his parked ambucycle, quickly climbed on, and sped to the address.
The volunteers arrived at the apartment building on Sokolov street and hurried upstairs to the tenth floor where they found the man unconscious on the floor. After a quick vitals check, they initiated CPR and attached a defibrillator.
Avraham and Yitzchak alternated with chest compressions and manual respirations. “We connected a defibrillator, but because the patient had a pacemaker, administering the shocks was a little more difficult and time-consuming,” said Yitzchak. In total, three shocks were advised from the defibrillator and administered by the EMTs.
Five minutes after the pair had initiated CPR, an intensive care ambulance arrived and the paramedic ran inside to help. He administered medications through an IV and helped with the resuscitative efforts of the EMTs.
At around 8:15 AM, the patient’s pulse returned. The medical team continued to provide assisted ventilation while they prepared him for the ambulance transport.
“As the patient lived on the tenth floor, we needed to sit him in a wheelchair and bring him down the elevator to bring him into the ambulance. This was also a little challenging because he was still unconscious,” Avraham recalled the incident. “The patient was brought to Wolfson Medical Center in Holon where he is receiving further treatment.”
“I am used to rushing out of work for emergencies such as this one, and I am always happy to do it,” said Yitzchak. “It’s an amazing thing that I can just leave in the middle of everything and drive my ambucycle to a medical emergency and help give a person another chance at life. I’m so fortunate to be able to help. This morning, the CPR took quite a while, but we succeeded in the end, and that’s all that matters. And of course, I drove back to work afterward and continued my day with a lot more positive energy. It was great.”
