Just after 7:00 p.m. on Monday evening a man in his 40s was chatting with a friend in his home on Shalom Tzalach Street in Petach Tikvah when he experienced sharp chest pains and collapsed. The worried friend called emergency services for help.
Elon Menachem Chasni, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT and the local dispatcher for Petach Tikvah, was taking care of some organizational errands at the organization’s local volunteer venter less than 300 meters away from the location of the man’s apartment. Upon receiving the alert, he ran outside, jumped on his personal motorcycle, and rushed to the man’s location with a full medical kit and defibrillator. He arrived in less than 30 seconds.
Elon quickly checked the collapsed man’s vital signs and finding no pulse immediately attached a defibrillator. He then initiated compressions. After the first round of compressions, the defibrillator advised a shock and Elon pushed the button to deliver the shock. He then continued compressions, stopping only intermittently to check for a pulse. After a few minutes, additional volunteers from United Hatzalah rushed in and joined him, including Alan Malka, Yitzchak Shikoral, and Elchanan Shoshani.
The combined team began to administer assisted ventilation and rotated performing compressions. When the mobile intensive care ambulance arrived they hooked the patient up to the monitor and after administering medications, the man’s pulse returned.
“This was a young man,” Elon said. “He’s just in his late 40s. He has a family and children. I am very thankful that I was close by and able to initiate CPR and help save his life. As a first responder who sees a fair amount of cardiac arrest cases, and knowing how most of them end, I am ecstatic that I was able to help turn things around and give this man another chance at life. It is a great feeling and a happy result to the end of a very trying ordeal for him. I was happy to be a part of it.”