Exclusive: After a Sudden Cardiac Arrest, Quick Intervention By EMTs Saves Rehovot Man’s Life
Rehovot – Volunteer EMT Micah Shalom hails from the bustling city of Rehovot, just south of Tel Aviv. At approximately 12:30 A.M. on Friday morning, Micah returned home exhausted from a late-night business meeting. The EMT was just about to hop in the shower and retire for the evening when United Hatzalah’s dispatch and command center alerted him to a man who collapsed nearby on Herzl Street. With no time to lose, Micha dashed out the door and raced to the given address.
Micah arrived at the location in the fastest time possible and was the first medical responder on the scene. Finding the 58-year-old man unconscious and without a pulse, Micah lowered the patient to the floor and launched into emergency CPR. Within moments, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Eliran Vitari joined Micha on location to assist with the rescue. As Micha alternated chest compressions with assisted ventilation, Eliran attached the pads from his defibrillator, and after receiving confirmation from the device, administered a powerful electric shock.
When the Mobile Intensive Care Unit arrived several minutes later, the crew attached a heart monitor. The combined team continued with CPR and administered additional shocks from the defibrillator. Eventually, Micha and his colleagues succeeded in restoring a viable pulse. The man even began breathing again independently and slowly began to regain consciousness.
Micha helped transfer his patient to an ambulance chair and prep him for transport. On their way down to the MICU however, the patient suffered another cardiac arrest in the elevator.
The first responders again provided electric shocks from the defibrillator and restored cardiac activity, stabilizing the man in the back of the MICU. The man regained consciousness once again. The now fully-conscious patient was then taken to the nearest hospital for an emergency procedure.
Mid-day on Friday, some 12 hours later, Micha and Eliran paid the patient a wellness visit. They found him laughing and joking in his hospital bed. The patient explained to Micah and Eliran about his closest friend who passed away from a heart attack, not long ago. With tears of joy in his eyes, the 58-year-old man thanked the two United Hatzalah volunteers for saving his life.
“It was very exciting and deeply gratifying for us to see what a difference our rapid intervention had made,” Micah said. “When Eliran and I were at the hospital, we informed the medical team that we were the ones who started CPR on the patient. The whole team couldn’t stop thanking us and telling us that because of our quick response and intervention, the man is alive today.”
(photo credit: United Hatzalah)
