Ezrachi and other volunteer ambucycle drivers
A Light Wound That Was Anything But
A few weeks ago, a 33-year-old man tripped in a public area and fell to the ground, striking his leg on a protruding metal object. At first, there was only a trickle of blood from the wound and a passerby alerted emergency services, calling it a light injury.
Yosef Ezrachi was at work when he received the call. Although not sounding particularly serious, the veteran medic was well aware that “light” injuries are not always as “light” as they first seem. Ezrachi dashed out of work, jumped on his ambucycle and raced to the location in less than two minutes. He found two passersby desperately trying to stop the victim’s blood flow which by now had greatly intensified, causing the man to feel weak and dizzy. Ezrachi quickly removed his medical bag from the compartment and the relieved passersby swiftly moved aside to let the professional medic take over.
Seeing that the small but extremely deep wound had presumably hit a major artery, Ezrachi quickly applied a tourniquet with the help of another United Hatzalah volunteer who had just arrived. In short order, the medics stopped the escalating blood flow and bandaged the dangerous wound. The victim, who had been exceedingly frightened and on the verge of losing consciousness, quickly calmed down as Ezrachi reassured him that the immediate danger was over. The caring EMT monitored the man’s delicate condition and made small talk with him as a means of keeping him calm and alert, as they waited 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive. Ezrachi briefed the crew and handed over a treated, calm and ready for transport patient.
“The point of our entire network of close to 4,000 volunteers is to provide fast medical treatment to those in need before an ambulance arrives,” said Eli Beer. “Yosef Ezrachi, together with the other volunteers who arrived at this incident did exactly that. Leaving his work and his office in the middle of the day is not something that is by any means easy. Yet our dedicated volunteers do this time and again in order to help save the lives of other people. They are true heroes in every sense of the word.”
Religious Muslim Woman Spends Her Time Saving Lives in Israel
On Wednesday morning, one of the more active emergency medical service (EMS) volunteers in Umm al-Fahm, an Arab town located in Wadi Ara, responded to a car accident that saw two people lightly injured. The volunteer EMT treated both of the injured parties after they were evacuated from their vehicles by the Fire and Rescue Department. What makes this story different from the myriad of motor vehicle accidents that occur daily in Israel is that the volunteer EMT in question is not only Muslim, not only religious but also a woman.
Sanaa Mahameed is a powerhouse of lifesaving. She has spent the better part of her adult life dedicating her time to save the lives of others. She is trained to drive an ambulance and works with the local ambulance organization known as Kahol-Lavan (Blue and white). She works at the local health clinic in her town and she volunteers as a first responder with United Hatzalah of Israel.
“I came into this field because I wanted to help people following a tragic story that has left me scarred until today,” Mahameed recounts. “I was sixteen when the story occurred. I was home alone one night when my aunt called me and asked if there was an adult home. I told her I was aloneץ She had a sense of urgency in her voice and she sounded frightened. I told her to tell me what was wrong. She told me in a broken voice that her husband sat down on the sofa and was now unable to move. I threw down the phone and ran to their home as fast as I could go.”
Mahameed continued her recounting of events. “I got to their home and I saw him sitting on the sofa, not moving. His daughter was standing over his screaming at him, “Daddy! Daddy! Please wake up.” I called for an ambulance and they came fairly quickly but it was still too late.”
“From that day onwards I knew that I would dedicate my life to saving other people by becoming an EMT so that I would know how to help people no matter what was occurring around me. That is precisely what I did,” Mahameed recalled.
“I began training to be an ambulance driver. I took courses on how to respond to large-scale disaster incidents such as earthquakes, I work as an EMT during collegiate and high school sporting events and as an EMT guide with touring children,” said Mahameed. “My dream is to complete paramedic training and to fly an emergency response helicopter.”
Mahameed has a message for other Muslim women, religious and non-religious alike. “I want to send a message to all the Muslim women out there who have dreams similar to mine and wish to help others. Come join us here at United Hatzalah, we need more people like you. I can tell you from personal experience just how much saving a life enriches my own. There is no feeling like it and I invite you all to join this wonderful organization that empowers me to do what I love so much.”
Sanaa is one of 300 Muslim volunteers in United Hatzalah and also one of 320 women in the organization, but, she is the only one who can brag an association to both of those groupings. Her religious adherence has never proven to be a problem for her and she is respected and loved by her fellow volunteers, especially those who work together with her locally in the Umm-El Fahm and Shibli chapter, a chapter that is all Muslim, one of three in the organization thus far. All of the Muslim volunteers in the chapter and throughout the organization, similarly to their Jewish, Bedouin, Druze and Christian counterparts, provide emergency medical treatment to anyone who needs it in their vicinity regardless of ethnicity, gender or religion.
