Treating a Mother And Daughter After A Car Bomb

EMTs in Rehovot respond to a car explosion and treat a mother and daughter for injuries following a targeted attack

Rechovot- On Tuesday morning close to 8:00 a.m., a car exploded on Carmel street in Rechovot, seemingly caused by a remotely activated bomb placed intentionally on the vehicle. The explosion sent its two passengers, a 30-year-old pregnant woman and her one-and-a-half-year-old toddler, flying out of the car and onto the asphalt. The woman’s legs were covered in shrapnel and she suffered from other moderate injuries while her daughter suffered a light head injury. Miraculously, no passersby were injured from the explosion, and emergency services were called for immediate medical assistance for the mother and daughter.

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yonatan Sasi was located on Haim Sireni street, only one kilometer away from the scene. He had just finished dropping his children off at school and was on his way to work. He sped off on his ambucycle and arrived within 60 seconds of receiving the emergency alert on his communication device.

Yonatan arrived at the scene and was the first medical responder there. He found the woman lying alongside the destroyed vehicle, screaming, and writhing in pain. The toddler sustained only a light injury and was in the arms of the passersby who were calming her down. Yonatan immediately started the initial treatment, focusing on the mother who was more severely injured. He cleaned and bandaged the open wounds to stem the bleeding and stabilized her neck and spine with C-spine immobilization to prevent spinal injury.

Additional EMTs arrived at the scene and helped treat both the mother and daughter. They were then evacuated in an ambulance to the Kaplan Medical Center in stable condition.

“I am incredibly devoted to volunteering with United Hatzalah and saving lives,” said Yonatan after the incident, “This was a very difficult incident to respond to because it was a targeted attack rather than a basic injury. This was very shocking and traumatic for the people injured as well as the passersby in the neighborhood. In general, this is a quiet neighborhood and things like this don’t usually happen here. When I respond to an incident like this one, there’s no time to think, I just rely on my training and do what I can to help save the person. Every second is important.”