SSF Rescuers Without Borders treats countless of people who need emergency medical treatment in the field. Those treating the injured are all volunteer medics, paramedics, and doctors.
Yonatan Marcus of Efrat has been a volunteer medic and ambulance driver with SSF-Rescuers Without Borders (Sauveteurs sans frontières) for four years. Marcus began volunteering on MDA ambulances in Jerusalem after finishing high school, whereupon he gained the training and experience to be a medic and ambulance driver. When he moved to Efrat, he became involved with the Gush Etzion area First Responder Unit through MDA. His relationship with Rescuers Without Borders also began during this time as a joint venture with MDA.
This cooperation initiative brought the area rescue system to a new level in terms of response time and equipment. "Rescuers Without Borders does whatever it can without hesitating to see what is the need, and they will find a solution. They will find funding from the generous people who help, and they will get us the correct equipment that we need, making sure to spread out the equipment in a smart way so we have many defibrillators in different shuls."
A defibrillator is a device that delivers precisely measured electric shocks to restart a heart beating that has stopped. Not every CPR situation calls for a defibrillator.
"This means that we have all the equipment a first responder would need in a life-saving situation in what's called a 'BLS bag' or, Basic Life-saving Bag. it has everything in it, all the different medical equipment that we need, and obviously a defibrillator, which is used in extreme situations. Also first responders have defibrillators in their homes but they're also spread around the shuls in Efrat so that if there's a first responder who doesn't have one at home (defibrillators are expensive), he can go to the nearest shul or send someone while he's doing CPR to save the person."
Having life-saving personnel nearby is a factor that can make the difference between life and death. One of the challenges we deal with, living outside of the city, is that we're far: Far from the hospitals, far from the main center, Jerusalem, where they have massive amounts of ambulances, so in our area and in all of Judea and Samaria the first-responders are an absolutely crucial part of the medical care that's done in those areas and our ability to save lives.
"In any situation, anywhere you are, whether it's on the road, if it's in an area where you can get stuck in traffic in different areas - for example, in Efrat if the ambulance is on another call in Jerusalem, you no longer have an ambulance in Efrat and you'll have to wait for another ambulance to come from another community or from Jerusalem. That's why it's very, very important to have this equipment and this ability. That's why Rescuers Without Borders has so many ventures and projects, not just first-responder bags but vehicles and ambucycles to give the first-responder the faster ability to get to greater distances, and reach more outlying areas in Judea and Samaria. So it's a monumentally crucial factor to allow us to get to people faster. The equipment is also very important because we could be in Jerusalem and our first-responder gets there first, within minutes, and there have been various situations when it took the ambulance 20 minutes or longer to arrive." All activity is performed in close cooperation with Magen David Adom.
Marcus illustrates the type of scenarios he and his colleagues are called to deal with daily: "Just a month ago we got a call right before Shabbos of someone with shortness of breath. It was in the block next to mine, so I grabbed my equipment and as I ran in I saw the person sitting on the couch having a very hard time breathing. I started checking blood pressure and I opened the oxygen tank - all equipment that was given to me by Responders Without Borders - and from asking questions I understood he was having chest pains as I start to see the first signs of a heart attack. We called the Intensive Care Unit, and by the time they got there we managed to take all the checks we needed to do; he was getting oxygen that was relieving the pressure on his lungs, and we had a line opened up so the second the ambulance came they were able to take him straight to the hospital, and within an hour he was already having a bypass, and Baruch Hashem after his recovery he's back to his job. It was really thanks to the equipment and my ability to get there and immediately after me another volunteer doctor with the equipment that he got, including Advanced Life-Saving (ALS) equipment including medicines that he got from Rescuers Without Borders, we were all on the scene and able to start treating the person and thank G-d he's alive today."