On a trip with his students to the beach in Rishon Lezion, Meir Ya'ari received a notification from United Hatzalah, where he volunteers, that there was an emergency in a nearby supermarket.
Leaving his students for a while with the other teachers, the Bnei Brak native rushed to the supermarket, when a 60-year-old worker had suddenly collapsed in the middle of the store. Ya'ari arrived at the same time as another volunteer EMT, Eli Rot, who performed CPR while Ya'ari applied four shocks of the defibrillator.
With the arrival of a paramedic, their combined efforts were enough to stabilize the worker, keeping him afloat as they readied for an ambulance.
The ordeal took just 15 minutes, but it was enough time to save a man's life. And with the crisis now averted, Ya'ari went back to work at the beach, helping his students.
“One of the most inspiring moments of that day was not the CPR itself, but what my student told me when I got back,” Ya'ari said in a statement.
“The same student that asked me to leave my communication device in the car asked me where I had gone for the last 20 minutes. When I explained the situation, he said in simple words: ‘So a man is alive today because the device was in your pocket and not in the car?’ His words were so simple yet so impactful, because he was right, and I will carry these words with me for a long time.”