Hatzoloh Yisroel is making ongoing efforts to prevent
citizens whose children need medical attention from rushing
with the child to the home of the neighborhood medic rather
than summoning an ambulance.
In Beit Shemesh recently, a medic who works for Magen David
Adom and Hatzoloh Yisroel heard loud knocking on the door of
his home one evening. Opening the door he saw a neighbor,
looking frantic and pale, holding a boy in his arms. "My son
stopped breathing. Save him!" he cried out.
The medic examined the boy and was surprised to find his
breathing was fine and he was fully conscious. "The child was
alarmed by his father's hysteria, but he looked fine from a
medical standpoint," recalled the medic.
The father, who apparently failed to notice his son had
regained consciousness after fainting previously, went into a
state of panic and created a scene.
This incident had a happy ending, but based on other
incidents that ended in tragedy, Hatzoloh Yisroel notes that
in the event of an emergency an ambulance should be summoned
immediately by contacting Magen David Adom at 101. "The long
minutes lost by running with the patient to the medic's home,
particularly if he's not home at the time, can cost a
person's life," says Hatzoloh Yisroel Spokesman Yerachmiel
Tucker.
