MDA paramedic Noam Weisbuch and EMT and mobile intensive care unit driver Noa Shimoni spent a night shift together on the night between Friday, October 6th and Saturday, October 7th. Toward the end of their shift, they received an emergency call to drive to the South to help treat people wounded in the attack. One of the patients they treated was Naama Gal, who was shot by terrorists at the festival in Re’im. For hours, Naama hid in a garbage dumpster, but eventually, the terrorists found her and shot her at point-blank range. She was severely wounded.
Noam and Noa came and treated her, evacuating her while she was in a severe and unstable condition. EMT Noa Shimoni recalls: “We met Naama on October 7th at the entrance to Sderot, just a few hours into the war. She had sustained several gunshot wounds, and she was in a very bad state. She managed to put together a few short sentences before collapsing. At that time, we had no idea what Naama had been through when we saw her. During the terrible massacre, Naama and her friends hid in a dumpster; some of them were murdered, and others were left wounded and bleeding. On the drive to the hospital, we did everything we could to save her life. I didn’t take my foot off the pedal the entire time – otherwise, we would have lost her on the way.”
“Naama’s injuries were very serious,” Noam Weisbuch, the paramedic, recalls. “When I looked at her, I knew that I would do everything I could to save her life. We told the MDA dispatch center to let the hospital know about the seriousness of her condition so that the doctors would be ready, and we brought her there while giving her complex medicinal treatment to stabilize her.”
“After evacuating her, we returned to the area of the attack and continued to treat other casualties. We saw things we’ll never forget. All of the first aid medical teams on the scene risked their lives to do their work,” Noam and Noa recall. “But still, it was Naama who stole our hearts and minds that day – a young woman, more or less our age, whose only crime was to go out and have a good time. For a week after that, we couldn’t stop thinking whether she had survived the awful attack. By coincidence, we came across a social media post she’d published in an attempt to find the people who treated her, and we immediately got in touch. Naama’s story became a ray of light for us amid all of the darkness. We were deeply moved to hear that she was not only standing on her feet, but had also recovered and returned home. It was truly a miracle.”
A few days after Naama was released from the hospital, Noam and Noa came for an emotional visit to Naama’s home in Haifa. “Finally, we’re able to meet, this time not in a war zone full of blood, sand, and smoke. It was a privilege for us to be there and to treat her.” Naama was moved by the meeting with the MDA team and said: “You’re my guardian angels. Even a thousand words wouldn’t be enough to describe how grateful I am to you: thanks to you, I’m alive. Thank you for everything.” 