The Talmud explains, “Whoever saves a life saves the world." Ask Sam Blech, 16, from New Jersey; Rivkah Zigman, 16 from Oregon; Benjamin Mendelson, 17 from Tennessee; or Jaden Jubas, 16, from Michigan and they’ll tell you that it is true.
On July 16, Blech and Zigman, both campers on NCSY Hatzalah Rescue, were volunteering as part of their summer program with a United Hatzalah ambulance crew in Tel Aviv. At approximately 7 p.m., their ambulance was dispatched to an unresponsive patient in a nearby apartment complex. Upon arrival, they found one of United Hatzalah’s ambucycle responders providing CPR compressions to a 60-year-old female.
Zigman and Blech joined the rescue efforts. Zigman applied the AED and Blech took over compressions. After shocking the patient, Zigman took over compressions and Blech began giving breaths through a self-inflating bag valve mask or BVM device.
Working with the EMT teams from United Hatzalah and a paramedic team from Magen David Adom, the patient’s pulse returned and the Magen David Adom paramedic team transported the breathing patient with a pulse to the hospital.
On the same day, just five hours earlier, Mendelson and Jubas were volunteering as part of their summer program with a United Hatzalah ambulance crew in Bat Yam when their ambulance was dispatched to a call for a semi-responsive patient.
While the ambulance was en-route, the call was upgraded to a “CPR in progress.” Upon arrival, the teens’ team found multiple United Hatzalah ambucycle responders providing CPR to an 80-year-old male. Both teens joined the compression rotation, working with EMTs from United Hatzalah and a paramedic team from Magen David Adom, regaining and losing the patient’s pulse two times before it was finally returned and the Magen David Adom paramedic team transported the breathing patient with a pulse to the hospital. The teens recently received medallions celebrating their "first lives saved” from United Hatzalah.
These teens are part of a month-long summer program, a partnership between the Orthodox Union’s NCSY Summer and United Hatzalah. According to a release, the program includes training teens to serve as emergency medical responders and volunteering with ambulance crews in Israel.