Students of lifesaving course restore J’lem man’s heartbeat

Fourteen and twelve-year-old boys saved a man whose heart had stopped after suddenly suffering from arrythmia.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Two young residents of Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood saved the life of a 45- year-old man last week after his heart stopped beating.
Moishe and Pesach Bagaad, aged 14 and 12, respectively, were being driven to school by their father when they noticed a figure lying on the street surrounded by a crowd of passersby. It turned out that the man had suddenly suffered arrythmia, and his heart had stopped due to electrical failure.
The boys told their father – who had not been taught first aid – to stop the car.
They rushed to the scene and called for an ambulance while giving chest compressions.
One of them grabbed his father’s cellphone and gave a concise and accurate account of the incident to the dispatcher.
The two were doing exactly as they had been taught by United Hatzalah paramedic Ya’acov Ehrlich, a respected volunteer in the neighborhood.
Ehrlich was nearby in his own car about 200 meters away and joined the fight for the man’s life with chest compressions. A passing physician also worked on the patient.
When the ambulance arrived, the driver asked the children to step aside. But Ehrlich explained to the ambulance medic that they were the ones doing the lifesaving.
The patient, whose heart began beating again, was taken to Hadassah-University Medical Center, and the boys went to visit him later. He was deeply grateful for what they had done.
Ehrlich, who also visited the hospital, noted that these two pupils had saved lives before. In 2008, when a terrorist plowed his black BMW into a crowd of soldiers, one of the pupils had applied a tourniquet and a pressure bandage to two severely wounded soldiers.
This week’s incident, however, was the first time he had watched his pupils in action.
“I give them an A+,” Ehrlich said in the hospital.


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