Rain Rescues and Recoveries

I had wanted to highlight the great work of one our highly active volunteers in Southern Israel, Daniel Suissa. Daniel regularly responds to over 100 emergency calls per month. Despite the lull in missile attacks in the south Daniel is kept busy with a myriad of other calls. From the ever too common car accidents to the also common heart attacks and everything in between.

The end of Daniel's January incident report sheet noted 3 consecutive days of successful resuscitations. 3 days 3 CPR's 3 lives saved. The rule of thumb is one out of 3 CPR's have successful outcomes. Time from cardiac arrest to hands on chest is one major factor. The second is the rapid and effective use of a defibrillator. Both are factors that active United Hatzalah ambucycle medics have in their bag of tricks.

When I spoke with Daniel I was in for a few surprises. First of all, he mentioned to me in a self-effacing way that in fact he performed a fourth successful consecutive CPR on February 1st. Friday afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday morning and Monday afternoon. 4 in a row! The toughest call for him was the one on Sunday morning. He was on his way to the IDF induction center when he received an alert of an unconscious pedestrian in Moshav Berachiya. A quick turn at the next junction and Daniel was on scene. Despite the torrential downpour Daniel could see that the poor lady was bleeding heavily from a serious head wound. A brief check of her vitals indicated full cardiac arrest. Daniel mobilized some moshavniks and other passersby to staunch the head wound and help him with his equipment. A few minutes of CPR, one set of shocks from the defibrillator and some advanced drugs from the MICU ambulance that arrived and the patient was on her way with a thready pulse to Barzilay Medical Center in nearby Ashkelon. Daniel continued on his way to the IDF induction center soaked by the rain but pleased with his efforts.

The second shock come when Daniel told me that he was not going on calls. I asked him why and he said that his ambucycle was just about totaled in a roughly ineffective theft attempt by a band of car thieves, presumably from the tribe of local Beduin smugglers. Given recent thefts of United Hatzalah ambucycles we had installed a hidden electrical override theft prevention device. Clearly that is what prevented the attempt but also prompted the thieves to dig into the ambucycle to attempt to neutralize it.

What bothered Daniel most was the fact that 3 days after the theft and subsequent damage he heard over the communication net about a person in heart failure a few short blocks from where he lived. Tense with frustration he heard other United Hatzalah medics race to the scene from further away. Thankfully they were able to save this person as well. Even the ambulance crew asked the medics "Where is Daniel? He is always first!" I promised him that I would do whatever I could to get his ambucycle repaired or replaced as soon as possible. Lives depend it.

Click here to help get Daniel back on the road saving lives.