Menashe [ben Shulamit] Kalifa, 41, remains in serious condition in Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, fighting for his life. It appears his condition deteriorated since erev shabbos. There is optimism however regarding his neurological state since his CT scan was reportedly encouraging. Doctors point out that he is not out of life-threatening danger.
Kalifa’s wife explained to Channel 2 that they saw the hysterical babysitter, and her husband Menashe did not hesitate, jumping into the open manhole in an effort to save Rachel Sofer A”H, and then he reentered the manhole to make certain no other children were trapped.
He passed out due to the toxic gases in the pit, and he was rescued in an unconscious state.
A senior paramedic happened by the scene and immediately began CPR on the child. The paramedic ambulance staffed with two paramedics, a student, and the senior medical authority, Dr. Radmir Rach arrived on the scene. The doctor instructed the student to intubate the toddler, but she failed in both attempts to establish a potent airway. A paramedic then moved into to provide an airway, but Rach stopped him, stating she was beyond resuscitation efforts, only then connecting a cardiac monitor which confirmed his statement.
According to a Yediot Achronot report, in his statement to MDA officials, the paramedic who was first on the scene stated “I wanted to continue CPR but the other medics told me the doctor already pronounced her dead. I was shocked and it appeared he agreed with me, to continue efforts to save the little girl but he told me that he is just the driver and cannot argue with the doctor”.
He continues his testimony, “We decided for the sake of the girl’s father, we would place her on the stretcher and take her to the ambulance, and only then inform the father of the tragedy. We faked compressions and ventilations until reaching the ambulance at which time the second paramedic arrived, with tears in his eyes, announcing they are sorry there was nothing more to be done”.
At the very same time, Kalifa was extricated from the manhole. “We decided to run the arrest hoping to save his life, not aware the physician on the scene ordered to halt resuscitation efforts” stated one of the paramedics who saved his life.
Two senior paramedics filed a report with MDA officials, charting the events that occurred at the scene. They also cited a doctor does not have the right to decide not to resuscitate a patient because he feels the victim may have suffered neurological damage. They also rejected the doctor pronouncing Kalifa dead without connecting him to a monitor. “We were required to attempt resuscitation. The doctor could not have known exactly how long he was without oxygen” they added in their report.
MDA RESPONSE: MDA condemns and rejects the cynical response of certain parties, taking advantage of the tragic death of the 3-year-old. We are sorrowed that your papers are spreading untruths and cheap lies that do not warrant a response. The medical authority on the scene is a physician and he acts in accordance to his professional judgment in accordance to clinical findings”.
Event Timeline: 4:17pm – a call is received by MDA dispatcher than Menashe Kalifa entered the manhole.
4:18 – the first paramedic unit arrives on the scene.
4:19 – Rachel’s father gets her out of the manhole. The paramedic who passed by began CPR.
4:20 – another medic arrives and they begin two-man CPR.
4:23 – The paramedic unit with Dr. Rach arrives on the scene. Rach sends the student to intubate the victim.
4:25 – Dr. Rach does not attempt intubation after two failed attempted by the student. He terminates resuscitation efforts and only then connects a cardiac monitor.
4:26 – Another paramedic unit arrives on the scene. Paramedic Yoni Harel starts CPR with another person together with advanced life support.
4:27 – Kalifa’s pulse returns. He is stabilized and transported to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.
President Shimon Peres phoned Mrs. Kalifa over the weekend, seeking to impart words of support for her, calling him a hero and adding all of Am Yisrael is praying for his recovery.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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7 Responses
Dr. Rach’s actions prove that a person can live a full and productive life even after being pronounced brain dead…
The Dr. has a student try to intubate twice and after both times failed he himself does nothing????? This Dr. is a murderer! This is not the first time there have been problems with this Dr. Any Hatzoloh member is well aware that something is “fishy” if you only work on a 3 year old for 15 minutes and then call it. This is a tragedy in it of itself but every effort must be made to get this Dr off the streets and to pay for his recklessness. BUT, with socialized medicine he will be protected and nothing will be done. How sad!
These parents lost their precious 3 year old and now have to not only live with that but also with the realization that just like the other person was saved their daughter may have also had a chance. Of course everything is from Hashem and it was not meant to be – but still what an awful pain to live with.
And NO you don’t have a right to be critical of my comments because this little Rachel Sofer A”H was my 1st cousin and the pain is deep!
To my dear cousin Reb Binyomin Yosef, we are all crying for your loss and are Mispallel each day for the RBS”O to guide you through this tragic and so painful Tzara. Your little Rachele is now in the arms of Bubbbbbby and Zaidy and together they will do what they can for all of us.
To 26 estates,
Before jumping to the conclusion that the doc is a murderer you should first find out what the doc has to say for himself. Even if he made a mistake of not resuscitating doesn’t make him a murderer. But by commenting on this doc you are either oiver motzay shem rah or loshon hora. There is no toelis to say what you said even if it’s true because this web site is basically for the USA, not EY, so why would I care if this guy is incompetent? I realize that you are emotional, but the torah always tells us to judge up things on the facts. You must first find those out. Don’t believe everything you read. BTW, there seems to be some discreptancy in this “medics” testimony. He first states “the medics told him that the doc had pronounced her” and he says “that the guy disagreed with the doc, but what could he do he is just the driver?” This implies that the driver was a medic and a medic agreed with him. But as far as I know MDA policy is that the driver of their MICU is just a first aider. What did the other medics say? Also, “We started CPR not realizing the doc ordered not to.” At what point did they realize the doc ordered not to? Did the doc scream at them after they got back a pulse and said why did you get back a pulse- I told you to let him die? (BTW this is not being cynical, it once happened to me, but I doubt this was the case here.) So how could this “medic” know afterwards that the doc ordered not to? Another problem @4:26 another medic unit arrived and started resuscitation on the male victim. Was this a MICU? If it was, there should have been another physcian on this unit. No where does it mention anything about this and what was his medical opinion? Any hisorreus that could be brought out to the klal from this tragedy has been dampened by the media including the frum media seeking to blame some doc or ambulance service before all the details have come out!
To health,
I feel it neccessary to respond to your comments, as a hatzolah member from Ramat Eshkol who lives 1 building away from the sofers and the park where the incident happened. I was also on scene from begining till end and am quite aware of the exact details of what happened.
The doctor may not be a “murderer” but it is fact that he left Racheli Sofer to die and tried pronouncing death on Menashe Kalifa. You can call him what you like but these are the facts. The news agencies have done a very very accurate job reporting the incident.
As for the “discrepinciies” that you wish to use to discredit the entire article, they actually show that your knowledge is limited in MDA protocol. The driver of the first MICU is named Chanan Meir (go look him up), He is a paramedic, however when driving the MICU he has authority of a driver because the practicing paramedic has authurity. In this spicific case the paramedic was sort of in between the two patients and Chanan Meir the driver/paramedic was by Rachel Sofers cpr and was instructed by the doctor to stop cpr. He did NOT agree but what could he do he was only the driver (although also a paramedic).
The second MICU which arrived on scene did NOT have a doctor on board. FYI- there are between 3-4 MICU’s on call at all times (in the day its 4 and night 3). ONLY 1 of them has a doctor on board and the rest are a crew of als and bls combined.
The doctor told the paramedic of the second MICU to not continue cpr on menashe kalifa, which he ignored and menashe is b’h alive now. The paramedics name is Yoni Harel. Go ask him if you have doubts about it.
I have heard other complaints about the system. It works in the opposite as well an is equally or more absurd. Since the first responders are not “qualified” to pronounce a patient dead, i.e., they aren’t doctors therefore they are required to proceed with life saving efforts, even when the patient has rigor mortis, because they are not “qualified’ to pronounce anyone dead. They put the oxygen mask on the stiff and commence CPR until a “Doctor” says, Oh, he’s dead as a doornail, you can stop.
Unfortunately this is not the first problem with MDA (i.e. the organization and some elements within it – many of the workers are excellent and dedicated people who save lives every day). In the last months they declared two people dead, one of which was resuscitated by Hatzalah members who weren’t prepared to listen to the MDA paramedic ( http://tiny.cc/1EE6R ), and a man who ‘came back to life’ after they declared him dead (see http://tiny.cc/rBcnx) – perhaps this story is disputed though. A friend had his baby born in the ambulance without a medical attendant because 2 MDA drivers were arguing together for over 30 minutes about something – despite his constant plea to get his wife to hospital and to deal with her at the hospital – the argument continued at the hospital and his wife was left in the ambulance and she delivered alone. He wrote a letter to them and the reply he received was a deafening silence. This is just the tip of the iceberg, I assure you! The bad elements in the organization need to be removed – from the top down.
To #6,
Thank you for answering. I’m just curious -if you are who say you are why post anon.? Also, I hope you also gave your testimony to the gov. Did MDA officials question this doctor yet about his actions? Also, you state they ignored the doc. orders to stop cpr on the man. This implies they ignored it on purpose, but the article states he wasn’t aware of the order to stop. At what point did this medic become aware of this fact? Also, according to the timeline above, 2 minutes after the doc. pronounces the kid dead- the man had already regained a pulse. Acc. to you this is a pretty quick doc. to assess a cardiac arrest patient in less than 2 min. and determine he wasn’t viable. Now, I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth, but just like you have a chezkas kashrus, so does this doc. I will wait until I hear both sides before I decide who was right. I think the media esp. the frum media should have done the same thing & not run with this story. They should have danned him l’caf zecus. It has been a big problem here in the US that people are judging up other people by the slant of the news media. When frum yidden started doing media- they should not have followed suit. There are plenty of goyish newspapers that are makpid to write both sides when they write an article. We have not yet heard from the other side.