Last Thursday evening, Levi Yitzchak Ben-David, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT who lives in Safed, was doing some last minute grocery shopping for Shabbat. Just as he was heading to the cash register his radio alerted him to an injured hiker on the nearby Nahal Amud trail. The dedicated medic left his groceries in the shopping cart, ran to his ambucycle and dashed through the narrow mountain roads to the trail. Thanks to his nimble ambucycle, Levi was able to maneuver onto the hiking trail and locate the lost hikers at the foot of a small ravine. As the first responder on scene, Levi sent his GPS coordinates to the dispatch center in order to guide other emergency services to the location.

Ben-David grabbed his medic kit and climbed down into the ravine where he found a small group of concerned hikers huddled around their friend. She was screaming in agony, clutching her clearly distorted and fractured left leg. The seasoned medic assessed the woman, calming and reassuring her as he examined the injury.

Ben-David stabilized the broken leg, applying a splint and cold packs to reduce the swelling. He remained with the hiker, monitoring her condition and reassuring her until additional rescue teams arrived to evacuate her to the nearest trauma center. After the evacuation, Ben-David packed up his gear, remounted his ambucycle and headed back to his shopping cart at the supermarket.

“Providing critical and professional medical care during emergencies, in the minutes that matter most, is what our organization is all about,” said Eli Beer, the Founder and President of United Hatzalah. “It is exactly for situations like this one, and the myriad of other situations similar to this that we give ambucycles to our volunteers, in order to assist them in reaching patients faster no matter where they are. If they can be reached by an ambucycle, we use an ambucycle. If not, we use a type of ATV that we like to call an ambutractor. It is our goal to make sure that no one goes without emergency medical assistance if it can be avoided,” Beer added.

“All of my items were still in the shopping cart when I got back to the store and that is not to be taken for granted as I was away for quite a while. But the store clerk heard my radio, saw me leave and understood what was happening, so he put my cart aside and kept an eye on it for me,” said Ben-David. “Helping someone is something that no matter what always leaves a good feeling inside afterward. Seeing the relief on the hiker’s face when I arrived meant so much to me about what I do and why I do it. That for me was thank you enough,” he added.