“This morning I had the privilege to save a life in mid-air.” said the President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer, who treated a man on an EL AL flight from Newark to Tel Aviv for severe hypoglycemia. The in-flight treatment that Beer provided took the patient from a glucose level of 40 to a stable level of 120 after approximately two hours.
“I was flying back to Israel from Newark this morning, and while I was sleeping someone alerted me to a person who was having a medical emergency a few rows in front of me. I jumped up from my seat and ran to where the person was seated. I saw a man who was about 65 years old, with convulsions, who had a cold sweat, was very pale and had a very high pulse rate. The man had difficulty speaking. I tried to communicate with him and was unable to do so. I asked the flight crew to bring me the airline medical bag and equipment. After a short check of his vital signs, even prior to obtaining the bag I was able to assess that the man was probably suffering from hypoglycemia. His lack of glucose was so severe that it appeared he would lose consciousness at any minute and possibly go into cardiac arrest.
I asked the flight crew to request a glucometer and glucose from the passengers. In the meantime, I placed some honey and jam under the man’s gums. One passenger ran over with a glucometer that they had with them and after a quick check, we found that this man’s glucose level was at a critical 40. This was after a few minutes that we had been providing him with the sugary condiments. I initiated glucose treatments thanks to the helpful passenger, and after about 30 minutes the man began to return to consciousness. I took responsibility and told the flight manager that there was no need for an emergency landing. I stayed with the ill patient for two-and-a-half hours to continue giving him glucose and monitor his situation until he stabilized and came back to himself. Only after his sugar level stabilized at 120, and the man regained full consciousness, did I go back to my seat.
The El Al staff, especially the flight manager, were terrific and very helpful, as were a psychiatrist and neurologist from Ichilov who also helped in the beginning.
I have no doubt that I saved a life today. When he came to, the man told me that he was on his way from Detroit to Israel for his grandson’s Bar Mitzvah. I am proud to be a United Hatzalah volunteer in the air and on land. After more than two hours of treatment and no sleep, I got off the flight in Israel with an incredible feeling of pride for all the other United Hatzalah volunteers who do things like this every day.”
– Eli Beer, Founder and President of United Hatzalah
The Vice President of Customer Services from EL AL Amir Rogovsky said regarding the incident: “We want to thank Mr. Eli Beer for the resourcefulness and quick thinking that he showed on this morning’s flight. Thanks to the assistance he provided the passenger, he assisted in helping save the man’s life and we wish to thank him from the bottom of our hearts.”
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8 Responses
I miss the olden days when we could save people in private and not brag about our under the radar chesed on social media…
and hypoglycemia kills the brain a while before it causes cardiac arrest.
@chareidi wow,how sad is your life that you cant appreciate the good that other people do? are you that underachieing that when other people do good you have no choice but to put them down so it can make yourself feel better about what you’re not doing to help others?
was that comment from a chareidi amiti?! brag?
Sorry,Charedi amiti,but I would not call this bragging,but an awareness of the importance of people knowing what it takes to bring someone back to life.Is that not important ,that more people should have this type of knowledge???
hey chareidi amiti
who are you to criticize eli beer? how many lives did you ever save??
if all you can do is criticize such a person then prob’ly your life is a big zero and you have an urge to put others down to your zero. what a pathetic waste of a life you are
@Chareidi Amiti- Why the need to rip others? Why the need for Loshon Horah? How about a simple “Kol Hakavod, tizku l’mitzvos, wish I could have that zechus”?
Wow! I would hate to be on a plane where a person has a heart attack. כל הכבוד to Eli Beer and I hope there are more such people flying. Shouldn’t every plane carrying a lot of people have a EMT on the flight?
It seems that my comment was ill understood by the masses.
Mr Beer did the right thing by stepping forward and helping a man on his flight who urgently needed help. He also deserves credit for launching an effective nation wide first reaponse organization here in Israel that has helped thousands of people, and saved dozens of lives.
The problem with this article is that he felt it necessary to reveal his identity and turn a noble act into a PR tool for his orginization.The same lessons for the public could have been learned without the spotlight that seems to be craved here.When a person decides to get involved in this field, he should not lose grasp of his humility. If Hashem gives you the gift of making a difference in the outcome, thank him and celebrate it between you and your family. A person who says”I saved a life today” does not reflect such humility.
This underscores a bigger problem with ichud.Less than one percent of emergency medical calls for help result in a life being saved. And within that tiny fraction, even fewer can be tagged on one persons efforts. I say this based on my own twenty years of prehospital experience, and on conversations with more experienced providers and ER doctors. Our goal is to help people who need help, either by using our skills to treat an urgent problem, or to share our time, or our hearts with suffering patients and their families.When ichud implies consistently that their responders have each saved dozens or hundreds of lives, then they subvert our true goal of chesed betzina and cheapen our sacrafice to PR propaganda.
I am mochel all the personal insults.