A regular week in Beit Shemesh?
Less than a week after Israel Magen Fund donated medical equipment to the Beit Shemesh Hatzalah team, the volunteers were out in the field, working to save lives.
On Thursday, Avraham Sharar and Dr. Udi Levinsky, two Beit Shemesh Hatzalah volunteers, rushed to the scene of a hit and run, where they found an 8-year-old girl lying in the road with severe head injuries. Using the emergency medical equipment that they had received earlier that week from Israel Magen Fund, they were able to save her life and stabilize her condition until the MDA ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.
Sharar, a father of four who has been volunteering as a paramedic for over a decade, stresses the importance of having a defibrillator and other life-saving equipment in his personal emergency medical kit – and thanks the IMF donors who made this happen. “Using the defibrillator and watching someone come back to life under your hands is the most amazing experience and gives us the strength to continue in our work.”
Sometimes, a routine call ends in an unusual manner – but not that unusual for a volunteer who considers acts of hessed routine behavior. And so it was, last Thursday, that volunteer Yehuda Weiss found himself at the site of a road accident.
After treating the injured, Weiss realized that the family car, now unusable, was stacked high with food and drink for a Shabbat Hatan celebration the following day. Without a second thought, Weiss loaded his own car with the provisions and drove them and the family back to their home.
After delivering the goods, Weiss was about to leave when he noticed that one of the family members was feeling unwell in a delayed reaction from the accident. Again, without a second thought, Weiss drove the family member to the local emergency clinic and waited with him until he received treatment. It was only then that he returned to his own busy, pre-Shabbat schedule.
In another recent incident, Shimon Ben Naim was among the Beit Shemesh Hatzalah Team who answered an emergency call to a fatal road accident. Ben Naim, a father of three who works with at-risk youth and has been volunteering as a paramedic since 2019, feels a great sense of commitment to the Beit Shemesh Hatzalah team.
“I arrived at the scene of the accident, which involved a large truck and a private car, and immediately began administering emergency medical care to one of the injured, before he was evacuated to hospital.”
These are just some of the ways in which the partnership between IMF donors and Beit Shemesh Hatzalah team is saving lives, almost daily, on the streets of Beit Shemesh.
On behalf of the people of Beit Shemesh, I thank you for your generosity.