It happened a year ago. The nightmare of every parent who lives in a high-rise building. A child fell out of a third floor window on Rabbi Akiva street in the bustling town of Bnei Brak and plummeted to his would-be-doom on the street below.

Passersby saw what occurred and the call went out for help. United Hatzalah paramedics responded within 90 seconds of receiving the call, and began to treat the child. The volunteer medics who responded to the call, Isaac Nugershall, Zeev Tepper, and Yoni Bashri, began to provide life saving treatment in the field, and the child was taken to hospital in critical condition while receiving CPR. Against all medical prognoses and logic, the child recovered.

Zeev Tepper recalled the events one year after the tragedy was averted. “We got a call over the radio regarding a case of “a fall from heights”, that is how these cases are referred to. I arrived at the scene together with two other volunteers, Isaac Nugershall and Yoni Bashri. We performed CPR and we saw the child to the hospital. After a lot of medical procedures and surgeries and miracles the child recovered. He had a year of rehabilitation and is now an active toddler. If it wasn’t for the CPR that we had administered in those few moments in the field the child would not be with us anymore. It was big miracle.”

Last Friday the United Hatzalah volunteer EMS personnel Isaac Nugershall, Zeev Tepper, and Yoni Bashri who treated the child were invited were invited to a thanksgiving feast that was held in celebration of the child’s recovery.

“It was a family event and they wanted to say thank you to us for helping save the life of their son so they invited us,” said Tepper. “It was wonderful to see the child jumping and smiling. The family honored us by allowing us to say the blessing of nishmat kol chai together with them. It was heartwarming and touching to be thanked by the family.”

Tepper said that he’d been at a lot of emergency calls during his time with United Hatzalah, but this one was special. “I’ve been here for ten years, this was a tough situation for me to see a child at two and half years old suffer that kind of injury. It was a great privilege to be part of the saving of the life of this child, and it is a great privilege to be a part of this organization.”

Tepper said that situations like this are “very rewarding and gives us a lot of strength to continue our work.”

The uncle of the child is also a volunteer of United Hatzalah and through him Tepper was able to stay in touch with the child and his family. He and the other volunteer medics even went to visit the child in the hospital and gave the child encouragement through his rehabilitation process. “I went to see him a number of times during the rehab process and it was great to see him getting better.”

“May we always have such success for all the people we deal with,” said Tepper. Tepper volunteers as a senior medic of Bnei Brak Chapter.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)