Baruch Nordman
Baruch NordmanUnited Hatzalah spkesperson

On Monday afternoon, a man in his 40s suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai Street in Modi'in Illit. Worried passers called medical services for help.

Baruch Nordman, a United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, was shopping with his wife nearby when he received the alert regarding the emergency. Baruch quickly apologized to his wife and rushed to his car. He immediately drove to the incident as fast as possible.

Baruch was the first responder at the scene and found a bystander civilian who had begun CPR in an attempt to resuscitate the man. The bystander was receiving vocal instructions from the United Hatzalah dispatcher on the phone. Baruch took over performing chest compressions and was joined two minutes later by an additional two United Hatzalah EMTs, Yehoshua Tal, and Eliezer Gertash. As the trio alternated between performing chest compression and providing assisted ventilation, a mobile intensive care ambulance arrived. the paramedic on board attached a heart monitor to the patient’s chest and provided him with one electrical shock. The team continued CPR protocol for the next 15 minutes. Thankfully they were successful at regaining the man’s pulse and he even began breathing on his own. Once the patient was stable enough he was transferred to the nearest hospital for further care.

After the incident concluded Baruch recounted; “There’s no greater satisfaction than saving a person’s life. This man was in his 40s and has a lot of his life ahead of him. I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time to assist in the successful CPR today because if I wasn’t who knows what would’ve happened. Being a volunteer EMT on days like today means that I get to go to bed knowing that I saved someone’s life. Today, I brought a father back to his children, a husband back to his wife, and a son back to his parents. To I saved a world. This was only my second successful CPR and I only hope that if I am ever called upon again to perform CPR and help save a life, that it too will be successful.”