Permission to perform an emergency operation for a child
hospitalized in New York was secured on Yom Kippur, thanks to
the dedication of the on-duty staff of Tel Aviv's Mogen David
Adom and the resourcefulness of Bnei Brak's Hatzoloh
volunteers.
At 1:30 AM on Yom Kippur, Tel Aviv's Mogen David Adom (MDA)
headquarters received an urgent call from Meir, a paramedic
from New York, asking the Mogen David Adom staff to help him
locate an American family that was visiting Bnei Brak. The on-
duty staff members MDA contacted Bnei Brak's Hatzoloh
volunteers and asked them to try to locate this family whose
nine-year-old son had remained in America, and who had to
undergo an emergency operation which could not be conducted
without parental consent. The child had suffered a serious
epileptic attack.
Since it was Yom Kippur, no one answered the phone in the
home of the child's relatives in Bnei Brak, and it was feared
that the operation would have to be postponed. M.R., a
Hatzoloh volunteer living near the family whom the parents
were visiting, knocked on the doors of a number of families
with similar names. After three abortive attempts, he finally
found the child's parents, who immediately contacted the
hospital in New York and authorized the operation, saving
their son's life.
Bnei Brak's Hatzoloh volunteers were trained by Mogen David
Adom, and are top ranking medical assistants, working as
volunteers with Mogen David Adom. All Hatzoloh volunteers
abide by the guidelines of prominent halachic authorities.
