Alaa-receiving-his-medical-kit-from-Carmel-Regional-Director-Naftali-Rotenberg
EXCLUSIVE: New Muslim EMT Performs First Successful CPR on a Jewish Woman and Saves Her Life
Kiryat Motskin – On Wednesday evening at around 7:30 p.m., a 70-year-old woman lost consciousness in her home on Simtat Tamari street in Kiryat Motskin. The woman’s son arrived at her home a few minutes later upon returning from work and found her lying unconscious and unresponsive on the floor. He called emergency services for help and began performing guided CPR via the instructions he received from the dispatcher as he waited for emergency medical responders to arrive.
United Hatzalah Muslim volunteer Alaa Higazy, a newly minted EMT, who lives in the town of Tamra, was shopping in the Kiryon Mall in Kiryat Bialek and rushed out as soon as he received the alert to the emergency. Alaa drove as fast as he legally could and arrived in his car just a few minutes after receiving the alert. He ran inside and checked the patient’s vital signs, and finding that there was still no pulse, took over the CPR efforts begun by the woman’s distraught son. He was soon joined by another volunteer EMT who attached a defibrillator and assisted him with the chest compressions.
After 10 minutes, the mobile intensive care ambulance arrived and the paramedic ran inside to where the CPR was taking place. She checked the patient’s vitals and found a pulse slowly returning. The paramedic instructed the EMTs to start ventilating and inserted a tracheal tube to properly ventilate the patient.
Alaa and the combined team continued the resuscitation efforts for the next 40 minutes until the woman was stable enough to be transported to the hospital and her blood pressure improved. Alaa then assisted the ambulance team in carrying the woman to the ambulance so that she could be transported safely to the hospital.
After the ambulance departed, the woman’s son came over to Alaa to thank him for helping save his mother’s life. He said that she has no medical history so the heart attack was sudden and very unexpected.
“This was the first successful resuscitation that I have been a part of,” said Alaa after the incident. “It was so nice to see the woman’s son, and her grandson who arrived later on, start to smile and relax once they saw her condition improve. It made it so much more meaningful once I witnessed the impact that my medical assistance had on the family. This was was definitely a night I will remember. With G-d’s help, I hope to save more lives in the future.”
