Zohar Sarvinsky, a paramedic from the Arad MDA team, is used to working under pressure and making fateful decisions, but April 13, the night of the Iranian missile attack, forced her into unknown territory. The concern for the safety of her family, the many sirens, and the loud explosions – none of these stood in her way when she fought to save the life of a little girl from a village near Kuseife, who sustained serious injuries during the attack.
“It was a regular Saturday night shift,” Zohar recalls. “My teammates for that shift were Mobile Intensive Care Unit driver Hussein Azberge and the regular ambulance team, Israel Katz and Dr Ziad. We heard warnings that something might be coming from Iran, so we were alert and prepared ourselves.”
When the sirens began wailing on the streets of Arad, people were surprised. “I’m from Beersheba,” says Zohar. “I’m used to sirens, and I know how they sound and what you’re supposed to do. In Arad, people aren’t used to it. There was talk of the fact that missiles were on their way, but I guess people didn’t really believe it.
"When the siren began, we started in the direction of the bomb shelter, and then we heard screaming outside; it was the sound of helplessness. People who were in the streets didn’t know what to do. We quickly went out to them and brought them into the shelter with us.”
Zohar tells us how there was a series of sirens; it lasted much longer than she was used to as a Beersheba resident who had been through her fair share of rocket attacks from Gaza.
“I tried calming the people who were there with me. But my head was somewhere else altogether, thinking about my daughter. She was with my mother-in-law in Arad. I knew she was in safe hands, but still, my heart pounded in my chest. When you know your home is protected, it helps you do your job in the best way possible.”
And so, from the moment she was called to assist the girl who had been wounded by the missile, Zohar had only one thing on her mind – saving the girl’s life – and she and her team were on their way.
Providing real and urgent care
“After several rounds of siren blasts, we received an emergency call with the message ‘severe injury of a child from a fallen missile.’ The details were still unclear. We immediately went to where we were directed. The only thing that interested me at that moment was getting to her as soon as I possibly could.
"We were met by a car at the entrance to Arad. Yisrael and Dr Ziad’s ambulance arrived a minute before us. The patient was a little girl who had sustained a serious and significant head injury. The relative who had brought her said she had been injured during the missile attack. We quickly assessed her condition, administered initial treatment, and evacuated her to Soroka Hospital together with her brother; I continued treating her in the back of the ambulance throughout the journey.”
When asked whether she had been afraid to venture outdoors during the Iranian missile attack into the darkness of the desert night, without knowing where she’d be able to take cover if another missile was to fall, Zohar doesn’t hesitate before saying: “That’s the job. That’s why we’re here – for each and every person who is sick or injured. When it comes to children, there’s an even greater desire to help. We’re all human, and a little girl who’s been injured isn’t something to which you can turn a blind eye. There’s something about it that penetrates you and touches your soul. I wish her a full recovery from the bottom of my heart.” 