Ashdod Woman Successfully Resuscitated After A Dangerous Fall In Her Home
On Monday at around 6:30 p.m., United Hatzalah’s dispatch center received a notification that a 75-year-old woman had lost consciousness in her home and required immediate medical attention. The woman had been found by her caretaker on her kitchen floor after a suspected fall. The woman was unconscious and unresponsive when the caretaker tried to wake her, so the caretaker hurriedly called emergency services for help.
Ishai Elmaliach who lives nearby received the emergency alert from dispatch and rushed out to assist. Ishai works in security and is married with two children. He devotes his free time to helping others by responding to medical emergencies as a volunteer EMT. In addition he also volunteers as part of the organization’s Hospital Emergency Room Relief Project. He isn’t phased by much.
When Ishai arrived at the scene three minutes later, he already found a team of EMTs from United Hatzalah attending to the wounded and unconscious woman. Fellow EMT Gershon Biderman was busy performing CPR on the patient. Ishai joined in and took over performing compressions from an exhausted Gershon. Ishai performed 4 rounds of chest compressions as the other EMTs provided assisted ventilation to the woman.
Gershon later mentioned that they were worried that the patient had received a head injury from her fall, “We were worried because the caretaker had told us that she found the woman on the kitchen floor, with her head leaning against the cabinets. She suspected that the older woman fell and bumped her head on the way down, which can cause severe damage. Our main priority was performing a successful resuscitation, and once in the hospital, the doctors would perform further operations to see that she is unharmed.”
Around 20 minutes into the resuscitation, a shock was administered, and a few minutes later the patient’s pulse was restored. She was transferred into the ambulance which arrived a few minutes prior and the woman started to breathe independently while on the way to the hospital.
After the incident, Ishai said, “Because I am part of United Hatzalah’s Hospital ER project, I am no stranger to CPRs. Performing CPR in a hospital is very different than on the floor in someone’s kitchen. However, this CPR went surprisingly well and was sanitary, with a great team of EMTs working together. The woman’s pulse returned relatively quickly and we have high hopes that she will return to herself soon.”
