Volunteer medic saves trapped baby's life using new 'window shatter' technology

The device for safely breaking vehicle windows had been distributed to medics only the night before.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
volunteer hillel with device 370 (photo credit: United Hatzalah courtesy)
volunteer hillel with device 370
(photo credit: United Hatzalah courtesy)
A United Hatzalah (UH) volunteer medic, Itzik Hillel, this week saved the life of a one-month-old baby girl in Modi’in Illit who had been left in a hot car -- using a device for safely breaking vehicle windows that had been distributed to medics only the night before.
The inexpensive small device, called ResQme, Inc., allows shattering the window to reach a child in distress without causing any risk from the broken glass to the child. It is manufactured by ResQme in Santa Barbara, California; the company donated the devices to UH.
Hillel received the device at a pre-Hanukka motivational evening for UH  volunteers in Modi’in Illit. The next morning, he received an alert about a baby locked in a car and found her; he estimated that the newborn had been left in the overheated car for about 25 minutes.  After he shattered the car window, freeing the infant, he took her for a nearby health clinic for treatment and monitoring for exhaustion. UH has been very active in raising awareness of this often fatal oversight by producing warning stickers to be affixed on the inside of the driver’s door of the car.
Company president Laurent Colasse told UH official Daniel Katzenstein that “kids in hot car are a big issue all over the world. Here in US, 40 kids died left alone inside car this year. A lot of organizations here in US have been pushing to bring more awareness and try to resolve or at least reduce such tragic fatalities. United Hatzalah’s car stickers are great ideas to bring more awareness to such issue.”