Senior MDA official in North dies after bike accident

MDA deputy director Meir Vanisch had been critically injured in a bicycle accident after working a night shift in Nesher.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
MEIR VANISCH 311 (photo credit: Courtesy of MDA)
MEIR VANISCH 311
(photo credit: Courtesy of MDA)
Meir Vanisch, deputy director of Magen David Adom’s Carmel region, died over the weekend after being critically injured in a bicycle accident.
A few hours before he was injured, Vanisch completed night duty in an MDA intensive care unit in Nesher. No details on how he was injured were given.
An MDA team was alerted to the accident at the foot of Mount Atzmon in the Galilee on Thursday, where they found Vanisch unconscious and suffering from a severe head injury.
After initial treatment, Vanisch was rushed by helicopter to Rambam Medical Center, where he died.
The 53-year-old Vanisch, who was born in Morocco and immigrated from Marseille in 1974, leaves a wife and three children.
In 1977, he joined the IDF and worked as a battlefield medic and instructor in its school for medical professions.
Three years later, he joined MDA as an instructor, medic and ambulance driver out of the Nahariya MDA station.
When he finished a paramedics course, Vanisch was put in charge of the station.
He rose in the ranks in management in the Carmel region, while continuing to serve as a paramedic and volunteering as a paramedic on IDF reserve duty in the Israel Air Force. Vanisch also earned a business administration degree at the University of Haifa.
MDA director-general Eli Bin praised Vanisch for his dedication to lifesaving throughout his career and canceled festivities due to take place in the Carmel for donors from abroad.