Last Tuesday, a 30 year-old municipality worker was cutting the grass in a road median in Petach Tikva, when his ride-on lawn mower suddenly burst into flames. The panicked worker jumped out of the vehicle, landing square in the roadway. The oncoming car had no chance to stop as it plowed into the unfortunate individual.
Onlookers called emergency medical services and upon receiving the urgent alert, United Hatzalah volunteer Ariel Peretz dashed out of work, jumped on his ambucycle and sped to the scene, arriving within 3 minutes. As the first medical responder on site, Ariel quickly assessed the semi-conscious man's multiple injuries and swiftly administered oxygen. Other EMS personnel arrived and assisted Peretz in bandaging the man's serious head injury and immobilizing his fractured limbs. When the ambulance arrived, Peretz briefed the crew and assisted in transferring the man to the vehicle in stable condition to be transported to the hospital.
Peretz is just one of 3,500 EMS volunteers with the organization who drops whatever it is that they are doing and heads out to medical emergencies and provide pre-ambulatory EMS services across Israel. These volunteers come from all backgrounds and streams of the Israeli population. They have families, go to work, pick their children up from school, and still find the time to answer whenever they are called upon. They exemplify the meaning of being always in service.