It has come to the attention of the YWN staff that in some cases, persons requiring emergency medical aid hesitate, embarrassed or fearful of picking up a telephone to call for assistance.
We are compelled to stress that if you believe you are experiencing a medical emergency, you should not hesitate for a moment, and you are compelled to activate the emergency system in your area, whatever the case may be.
This the leading poskim of our generation have stated over-and-over again supersedes Shabbos and all other Holy Days of the year, and we urge anyone who is uncertain to err on the side of caution and make a call to activate EMTs and paramedics without the slightest hesitation.
This applies to possible life-threatening situations and one should not abuse the services available through fine organizations such as Hatzolah, whose volunteers stand ready anytime day or night.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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17 Responses
I HAVE USED HATZOLA ON SOME OCCASSIONS AND EVERY TIME IT AMAZES ME HOW THESE MEN GIVE UP EVERYTHING TO GO ON CALLS TO DO CHESED! WOW
Elik
unfortunatley I have had to use them several times- while as you say, it is amazing that they give up everything to go on calls (I don’t disagree with that), the truely amazing thing is the way they treat the patient and families- with plain respect. You will never find that in a goyishe volunteer company.
As a former member for 30 years and dispatcher for 15 years I will tell you that the “hesitation” of calling on Shabbos or Yom Tov for sevices of Hatzoloh is due to the wrong information that people have heard over the years of when it is and is not proper to call for sevices on Shabbos or Yom Tov.
Some of these Rabonim that have a history of criticizing Hatzoloh on the way they respond and “return” from calls on Shabbos did not hesitate to call Hatzoloh even for 1 second when they had an emergency on Shabbos or Yom Tov.
On the other hand people at times have abused Hatzoloh’s services when the caller just called for Hatzoloh so they can get into the emergency quicker when the “emerghency” that they calkled for might have been lingering for weeks or for going to the hospital on shabbos to deliver a baby because the caller was “negligent” in making arrangements for the duration of the pregnancy with a goyishe car service.
Jost keep in mind that “Hatzoloh Members” are shomrei torah and mitzvos too so don’t abuse them or their service abd don’t ask “them” to put “on” your light when they walk thru your door just because they drove to your house to take the emergency call.
Also don’t ask the dispatchers shaylos about shabbos , he or she is not a poisek.
We are all so unbelievably grateful to all the amazing Hatzola men AND their families! Everything is always done with such tzinus, derech eretz and gentleness. Our daughter cut her head on yom tov – should we call? or not? – we did, and they were so encouraging. He even took the time to explain to my other children why he was allowed to do something. They go to the hospital with you, keep everyone posted, and even check in afterwards! Kol Hakovod!!!!
we can trult understand the meaning of MI KIAMECHA YISROEL when you yourself need hatzoloh
i am a Hatzolah member and it does not bother me if i have to get out in the middle of the night for a call that turns out to be nothing. BUT IT DOES BOTHER ME when i come to a call and the person tells me he was having chestpains for 6 hours and was to embaresed to call. NEVER HESITATE CALL RIGHT AWAY.
the way they treat the patient and families- with plain respect. You will never find that in a goyishe volunteer company.
As someone who *has* volunteered (and worked) as an EMT with a non-Jewish ambulance company, I take offense at your statement. I (and my crew members — Jewish and non-Jewish) have always strived to show the greatest respect to our patients and families. I’m sorry if you’ve had a bad experience or two — but don’t project it on the entire industry.
The Wolf
… and, just for the record, allow me to add to the chorus of those who praise Hatzoloh for their amazing work.
The Wolf
I once needed to call Hatzalah on Shabbos in Lakewood. B’H in the end it was just a story of dehydration and not a cardiac arrest or anything else life threatening. The way, Hatzalah came within 2 min from when I called, the way they treated the patient and calmed down nervous and scared family members was just unbelievable!! Mi K’amcha Yisroel!!! How fortunate are we to belong to such a special nation. Thank you so much dear Hatzalah for everything!!
The average response time for hatzalah (from what I hear on a scanner) is app. 1 to 2 minutes, sometimes a little less and sometimes a drop more but compared to all other kind of emergancey services (police, fire…) it is by far the fastest response team. Keep it up hatalah!
Wolf, you have to take a chill… & work on developing thicker skin.
Stop “taking offense” at every comment posted.
#11, while it may be “fun” to listen to hatzola on a scanner, it is really not fair to the callers to have their symptoms and ills announced to all. it would be a great benefit to all involved in hatzola if the community out there would stop using scanners; after all, one of our main priorities is confidentiality, and the scanner defeats the purpose! and if you ever require hatzola’s services chas vasholam, how would you feel to know that besides the volunteers, many others have scanners and hear what’s going on?
I live in Chicago where for political reasons (and a quick response time by the locals) there is no Hatzolah.
I personally witnessed a situation where someone in their 60’s ‘wasn’t feeling well’ after 45 the person finally agreed to call an ambulance they lost consciousness in the ambulance and was nifter three days later. the person had suffered a stroke. i have often wondered if calling an ambulance immediately would have saved this persons life.
if people hesitate to call Hatzolah(where its a haimishe yid that will show up) imagine the hesitance where we don’t have Hatzolah!
DON’T WASTE TIME!CALL!
please watch the beautiful video at hatzolohtoronto.ca . it was also shown at the convention last week. Hashem should continue to give these men Koach! (although b’ezras Hashem we shouldn’t need them!)
Wolf your’e no different than mameshtakeh- He says things which aren’t true because it’s PC
and so do you!(#9)
tzibrochenkup- 1000000% agree with everything you said, and I have noticed that during the week ppl will use the ambos as a taxi service, but for some reason, hesitate to call at all on shabbos…and yes, you should call if you think your kid might have broken a limb on shabbos or yom tov b/c it can lead to a loss of limb (even if it doesn’t look so bad) b/c it can effect the child’s epiphyseal growth plate- that is an emergency!
and FYI you will not get in quicker just because you took an ambulance- people who do that wait in the hallway or triage for an available bed or even get sent out to triage to wait sometimes. Seriouslly, you can’t fool the ER nurses and docs we’ve seen it all…
Just know that when you use the ambulances as a taxi service, you are making it so that one less ambulance and one less hospital bed are available for cardiac arrests, and serious truamas, so if you need it, use it, if you don’t, call a cab.
And no, having a baby is not cause for calling an ambulance unless you are crowning, getting ready to push or have cord prolapse.
We’ve had to call hatzola a few times unfortunately. Boruch Hashem it always turned out to be nothing, but I’m impressed with the way they handle kids. The kids weren’t even crying because they were calming them down so well.