EMTs during hospital visit
EMTs during hospital visitUnited Hatzalah

After the Shabbat preceding Rosh Hashanah, United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs Aharon Avital, Tomer Tzenani, Yossi Cohen, Naftali Friedman, Adi Avivi, and Lior Filshteiner were summoned to the home of Yaron and Limor Golan in Hod Hasharon. Limor had just suffered a heart attack. To complicate matters more, Limor was 39 weeks pregnant when the heart attack occurred.

“I was sitting in the living room watching TV when I heard a noise in the bedroom,” Yaron recounted. “I saw Limor on the floor and I rushed over to her and tried to wake her up. She didn’t respond. I called a neighbor for help. He began performing CPR on her. I didn’t know what to do so I called the emergency number for an ambulance.”

Aharon Avital, head of the Hod Hasharon team for United Hatzalah together with EMT Yossi Cohen were the first responders at the scene. The pair arrived in less than three minutes and immediately took over CPR from the neighbor. Aharon and Yossi attached a defibrillator and administered an electric shock. The two spared no efforts in saving the life of the young mother and that of her unborn baby. Moments later they were joined by four other volunteer EMTs from their local team who joined their efforts.

A mobile intensive care ambulance arrived sometime later and after more than 30 minutes of active CPR, the combined team managed to restore a steady pulse. Limor even started breathing again independently. She was rushed to the maternity ward at Meir Medical Center for an emergency C-section, which was successful in saving her child’s life. Limor was then treated in the hospital for her heart attack and later regained consciousness in the hospital and awoke to meet her healthy little boy, the couple’s first.

This past Friday, the United Hatzalah volunteers were invited by Yaron to reconnect with the family in the hospital. During the meeting, Yaron and Limor shared their profound gratitude with the team of first responders and thanked them for their quick arrival and lifesaving intervention.

Yaron thanked the volunteers for saving the lives of his wife and son. “You saved my wife’s life and my son’s and in truth mine as well as I’m not sure I would have survived this had they both died. You arrived so quickly and treated my wife with expertise, commitment and caring that I have no words to thank you. You’ve literally saved us. I now know that I have to do a CPR course. Every family should do this. It is imperative. I was upset at myself that I didn’t know what to do when my wife collapsed. You people, who don’t know me and don’t know my wife came to save her life. You volunteered their time. I too will now volunteer to go out and help others. I am committed to this and it will happen.”

“This was the most moving CPR I have ever done,” said Aharon, who has performed dozens of emergency CPRs during his years volunteering as an EMT. “As I ran into the house I saw what tragedy could befall the family if Limor wasn’t saved. Limor who was unconscious, the baby who was about to be born, and Yaron whose life was literally crashing down around him in a moment. I knew that we needed to save Limor and prevent this tragedy from occurring.”

Aharon added: “When Limor woke up on Monday, two days after the incident, Yaron called me and asked if I could come with the team who saved her to visit them and meet the new baby. I gathered the crew of volunteers and we ended up coming in to visit them a bit later in the week so as to give Limor time to heal after her ordeal and surgery. We spent some time with them and I was pleased to see that everyone was recovering. I have never seen a miracle quite like this.”

Limor and her son, being fully recovered, were released from the hospital before Yom Kippur.