Yardeni is a section manager at a juice factory in the kibbutz and also volunteers as a United Hatzalah EMT. He received an alert during his workday of an emergency in the industrial quarter of the kibbutz and found the worker near an electrical box, lying in a puddle of water. A strong smell of smoke filled the air.
“As the electric box had shut off due to the emergency breaker having been triggered, I pulled the worker out of the puddle of water and then quickly attached the defibrillator, which did not advise a shock, and initiated CPR,” Yardeni said after the incident.
Yardeni instructed other workers to bring a medical kit from the factory as he performed chest compressions. He told the other workers how to connect oxygen to the mask and place it on the patient's face as another United Hatzalah volunteer EMT, Shalom Belchamo, arrived on the scene and took over compressions and he switched to ventilating the patient.
“We worked together for a few minutes, and during the entire time, the defibrillator kept instructing us to continue CPR but did not advise a shock," he explained to reporters.
Soon after, a mobile intensive care ambulance arrived and helped resuscitate the man. After a shock was administered from a heart monitor, the man's pulse finally returned and he was transported to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
“This isn’t the first time that I’ve been called away from work to save someone’s life,” Yardeni said.
“I try not to think about the medical emergencies while I’m at work, whether they end positively like this one, or negatively. If I do think about it, I won’t be able to get any work done, so it is better to simply put it out of my mind until a later time when I can process it. In the meantime, I keep going through my day so that I can get my work done. Having said that, saving lives is an amazing thing and I am very thankful that I am a part of this organization and family.”