IsraelSeen Exclusive – Have You Ever Had A Feeling So Great It Is Difficult To Put Into Words?
A week ago on Shabbat morning, an elderly woman aspirated half-an-hour after eating breakfast in her home in Holon. Her raspy coughing alerted her daughter, who quickly ran to her side. At first, the daughter didn’t realize the seriousness of the situation but as her mother began to lose consciousness, she suddenly grasped that her mother was choking. In a panic, she dialed United Hatzalah’s emergency number. The dispatchers sent out an instantaneous alert to the volunteers in the vicinity and United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yosef Sousan Parsi received the emergency alert. He instantly rushed to his ambucycle and sped along the roads to arrive at the address in just two minutes.
Two additional United Hatzalah ambucycle EMTs followed in seconds, and the threesome rushed into the apartment. They discovered the elderly lady unconscious and pulseless due to the prolonged oxygen deprivation. The three medics immediately began CPR. Working as a team, they took turns performing the strenuous compressions and administering artificial respirations. For a full 25 minutes, the three volunteers relentlessly continued the resuscitation, until they regained stable cardiac activity. A moment later, the responding ambulance crew burst into the room. Not only did they find a viable patient, the woman already had a steady pulse and without further ado, she was placed on a stretcher and whisked off to the hospital.
“When I received the call I was a bit surprised to see that this was the same woman I had treated a few days prior for respiratory problems,” Yosef said. “The call came out as a CPR call and I, together with the other volunteers, one of whom was a paramedic from United Hatzalah, rushed over and immediately began a full CPR on the woman. Knowing that we saved this woman’s life was a great feeling. To know that we were able to be there for her in her time of need gives us all the inspiration we need to keep doing this job. Had we not been there, this woman would have waited for 25 minutes for an ambulance and there wouldn’t have been much to do for the ambulance crew once they arrived,” he added.
Yosef concluded by thanking his fellow responders. “This was the fifth successful CPR over the course of the week for our team here in Holon and the fifth person’s life that was saved due to the rapid intervention provided by my fellow United Hatzalah volunteers here. I am so proud to be a part of this team it is difficult to put into words.”
