Stories From the Streets: Traffic Jam Save

Yossi Rotenberg works as the deputy director of a branch of a major supermarket chain in the center of the country. One recent Friday he had just left work and was on his way to drop off some supplies for his daughter in Haifa. He punched the address into Waze, and the phone application sent him via Highway 20. “This was the first time that I have gone to visit my daughter since she moved to Haifa,” Rotenberg says. “It was a miracle that I went, because I ended up saving a man’s life.” 

Just as he was passing the Glilot junction, Rotenberg noticed a bit of a traffic jam up ahead. He slowed to a stop behind a vehicle in front of him. That is when he noticed a bunch of drivers had gotten out of their cars and rushed over to a vehicle that had driven into the guardrail on the side of the road. 

“Some of the people gathered began to pull the driver who had hit the guardrail out of his car. I put my car in park, got out, and grabbed my vest, medical kit, and defibrillator. I ran to the injured driver, who was now lying on the ground, and checked his pulse. He didn’t have one. I immediately attached the defibrillator, and it advised administering a shock. I cleared the patient, hit the button, and delivered the shock. I radioed to dispatch, giving them my location and telling them I was performing CPR on an injured driver. Then I instructed one of the other drivers who had come to help to begin compressions as I prepared to provide assisted breathing.” 

As Rotenberg performed CPR, United Hatzalah’s dispatch put the call out to other volunteers, and EMT Amit Sinai, together with Tzvika Sperling and a doctor who volunteers with the organization, arrived to assist. 

Sperling took over compressions, and Sinai assisted with the ventilation. Both reported that as soon as they began treatment, the man’s pulse came back, and he slowly started to breathe again. “This was Yossi’s save,” says Sinai. “Yossi brought this man back to life.”

Rotenberg added that “due to the quick response of the other volunteers, we were able to open an IV line to administer fluids and even check the man’s blood pressure before the ambulance arrived. When it did there was nothing left to do except load the man in and rush him to the hospital. The whole thing took 12 minutes from the time of the accident until the man was revived and on his way to the hospital.

“Thankfully, I have already managed to save a few lives,” says Rotenberg, who has been a volunteer EMT for the past 12 years. “That doesn’t diminish the special feeling I get whenever it happens. It is a feeling like no other.

“That Friday a series of miracles happened that put me in the right place at the right time. It was a miracle that I chose that day to go visit my daughter for the first time. It was also a miracle that Waze sent me on Highway 20 as opposed to Highway 6. Had either of those things not happened, I don’t know if this man would have survived.” 

Raphael Poch is the international media spokesperson for United Hatzalah, Israel’s national volunteer EMS organization.