A 75-year-old Charedi man from Kiryat Sanz in Netanya headed to the beach on Erev Yom Kippur in order to go to the Mikveh. During the bathing ritual, he drowned and had to be pulled from the water. He was unconscious when EMTs and paramedics arrived to revive him. Unfortunately, after elongated resuscitative efforts, he was pronounced dead.

Just before 4 p.m. on Erev Yom Kippur, EMTs and paramedics from Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah we alerted to the incident. Following the resuscitation attempt which lasted an hour paramedics were forced to end their attempts and pronounce the man dead.

Shlomi Badichi, a United Hatzalah EMT who was nearby when the emergency occurred and participated in the resuscitation efforts said: “With the help of other United Hatzalah volunteers we attempted to resuscitate the man who had drowned. However, after an elongated attempt to revive him paramedics in the field were forced to pronounce him dead at the scene. Passersby reported that the man had entered the sea in with the desire to purify himself before the holiday and that he was pulled out of the water unconscious, with no pulse and that he was not breathing.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)