By YAAKOV LAPPINbeduin shepherd 298.88(photo credit: AP)
Rami Hariziat Hassan, a 20-year-old Palestinian shepherd from Rantis, some 30 km. northwest of Ramallah, was saved by Border Police officers after being bitten by a viper on Sunday night.Hassan had fallen asleep while his goats and sheep grazed, his friend Raja Talam Va’ada told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. ‘Suddenly, a snake bit him on the foot. We rushed to a local checkpoint and asked the soldiers for help. They really helped us,’ Va’ada said. ‘He nearly died. He wasn’t breathing.’Border policemen quickly brought in a medic to administer first aid, and an ambulance to rush Hassan to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer.‘We kept in touch with doctors to monitor his condition, and ensured that the snake, which had been killed after it attacked, arrived at the hospital [so that doctors would know which anti-venom to use],’ Border Police spokesman Moshe Pinchi told the Post.‘The doctors gave him a shot and saved him. We want to thank everyone – the border policemen and the hospital doctors,’ Va’ada said. ‘Well done to everyone.A human being is a human being, whether Jew or Arab. I recently called an ambulance after witnessing an [Israeli] car flip over on the road.’ Before Hassan was released from the hospital, Border Police officers came to check on his condition and bring him candy.
