The emergency volunteer first-response personnel at the Rescuers Without Borders Organization (SSF) are known throughout Israel and around the world for saving lives during medical emergencies on a daily basis.
But on a cold and windy night in the hills of Jerusalem this past week, the dedicated staff pulled off a different type of rescue – saving the opportunity for a bed-ridden Israeli grandmother to attend the wedding of her granddaughter and giving her an evening of joy and celebration that she will never forget.
It all started on a Shabbat morning two weeks ago, when P.G., a grandmother in her 80s (and great grandmother) from the community of Kedumim in Samaria was getting dressed to attend synagogue services. While putting on her clothes in her bedroom, she slipped and crashed hard down to the floor.
Thinking perhaps it was just a bruise she waited it out throughout Shabbat. But when the pain became intolerable, she and her husband, also in his 80s decided to take a trip to the emergency room in Kfar Saba.
After medical scans, doctors determined that the damage was severe, and that P.G. had broken her hip. By Sunday evening, she was already in surgery to repair the damage.
Following nearly a week in the hospital, P.G. was transferred to a local Kfar Saba rehabilitation facility with the goal of getting her back on her feet through physical therapy and other treatments. But the rehab process was slow after such a severe injury.
Throughout the ordeal the most pressing thought on her mind was ‘how will I possibly attend my granddaughter’s wedding later in the month?’ With limited mobility, how would she possibly get into a car and travel from Kfar Saba to the wedding near Jerusalem?
The wedding was scheduled for Sunday, November 27, and as of Friday morning, November 25, it did not look like there was a realistic solution for her to be able to attend.
That’s when Rescuers Without Borders stepped in to save the day. A family member contacted the organization’s Director of Fundraising Natalie Sopinsky to see if she had any suggestions on how to get P.G. to her family event.
Keep in mind that Friday in Israel for most is a day off from work, a time to prepare for Shabbat. The day is especially short in the winter with Shabbat starting at around 4:00 p.m.
Without hesitation, Sopinksy said “don’t worry, I’m on it.” By noon on Friday, Sopinksy with the approval of the organization’s leadership had arranged for a Rescuer’s ambulance staff – a driver and two female medics to pick up P.G. from the rehabilitation center in Kfar Saba, and assist her onto the ambulance, and drive her to the wedding in enough time to arrive for family pictures.
There was hardly a dry eye in the hall, when P.G.’s four children and spouses, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and her granddaughter - the bride, swarmed around her wheelchair to greet her at the family celebration. The same emotions rang true as the bride-to-be and her fiancée greeted their grandmother as she sat in the front of the bedeken ceremony.
P.G. sat through the chuppah marriage ceremony, and did a spin with the bride in her wheelchair, as the Rescuer’s ambulance crew remained in the area on-call and with complete patience waiting to assist in driving her back to her rehabilitation facility.
Finally it was time, and family members lined up to say goodnight as the crew helped get her back up in the ambulance and back to Kfar Saba.
Words can’t express the gratitude the family has for Natalie, the ambulance driver, medics, and the organization as a whole, for pulling off what seemed impossible just two days earlier. This might not have been the typical Rescuer’s Without Borders life-saving rescue, but for one Israeli grandmother and her family, it was truly a save nonetheless.