About five months ago, Yossi Gal, 64, a resident of Tomer village in the Jordan Valley, collapsed in his home after suffering a severe heart attack and was in real mortal danger. The MDA team, headed by Paramedic Amit Nuriani and Yevgeny Lampert, were dispatched and reached the scene in a mobile Intensive Care Unit. Having diagnosed a myocardial infarction, Paramedic Amit decided to call over the MDA helicopter. Minutes later paramedics Yossi Halabi and Zvika Malkis landed in the helicopter at the moshav. With great professionalism, the paramedics provided life-saving medical treatment and while preparing the medical teams at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, they evacuated the patient by helicopter directly to the catheterization room. Four days later, Yossi was released from the hospital, returned to full functioning and his heart remained intact.

Since then, Yossi Gal has had a strong desire to convey his gratitude to the paramedics who saved his life. He decided to do so in an original and festive way. He chose Tu B’Shevat as the most appropriate day, and decided to plant, together with the MDA team that saved his life, 18 palm trees in a special plot of land allocated on the farm where he lives.

In a particularly heartwarming event, the MDA paramedics, Amit Nuriani, Yevgeny Lampert, Yossi Halabi and Zvika Malkis, arrived again at Yossi’s farm. This time they were accompanied by about forty MDA youth volunteers from Afula and Beit Shean. They were excited to meet Yossi Gal, an Israeli farmer to his core, standing on his feet, smiling and healthy. Yossi gave a warm hug to each one of the paramedics and told them about his memories and experiences from the incident. Then the paramedics, together with Yossi’s family and the MDA youth volunteers, went to a special plot of land on the farm and there they planted 18 palm trees that will bear the fruits known as “Majehul” dates, for many years to come. At the end of the plantings, Paramedic Amit Nuriani and Shir, Yossi’s granddaughter, unveiled together a special plaque engraved as follows: “To the Lifesaving People of MDA, with Gratitude.”

Yossi Gal, who settled in the Jordan Valley already in 1972, as a member of a Nachal outpost, later built by his own two hands the farm on which he lives in Moshav Tomer. Now he volunteers and helps many people on a daily basis. As a life project, Yossi opened his home and voluntarily hosts groups of soldiers, community centers, youth centers, youth on their year of national service, teenagers, and more, all in order to host them in the Jordan Valley and familiarize them with this important region, where people live happily, work and have a satisfying way of life.

Paramedic in the MDA helicopter, Zvika Malkis: “In the condition you were in, every minute was critical. It was important for us to bring you directly to the catheterization room. We informed the physicians at the hospital about your condition and asked of them to be ready and begin all the preparations even before we arrived. This has helped us to save not just your life, but your quality of your life also. Usually, after we evacuate the patients to the hospital, we separate from them and we are not aware of what happens with these patients later. It’s heartwarming to meet you today and see you standing on your feet, smiling, hosting us so respectably and even able to do some running”.

MDA Paramedic Amit Nuriani: “Standing here today and seeing Yossi with his family and grandchildren is very exciting. This is why we have chosen the paramedic profession, and that is what gives us the strength to go on every day. There are few cases in which we actually get to meet our patient after treatment, and seeing you like this, changes everything and gives us the strength to continue”.

MDA Paramedic Yossi Halabi: “Conveying gratitude as you did today, cannot be taken for granted. We encounter thousands of events during our careers and unfortunately, some of the cases end differently. To see you here with us, after you have walked out of it unharmed, gives us the strength to continue saving lives.”

MDA Paramedic Yevgeny Lampert: “Only a few months ago we were here exactly at the same place, but then the circumstances were completely different, as we were fighting for your life. Today you host us warmly, and it’s so exciting. I wish you many more years of activity and being able to continue to host people at this special place.”

Yossi Gal: “We are gathered here today to give you a small “thank you” for such a great deed that you have done for me. I am but a single case, however, throughout the year you handle thousands of cases. In my village alone, you have been a number of times recently, and I know that you have saved other lives also. I invited you here today, to the place where almost lost my life, to give new life through planting palm trees for decades ahead. I promise you that I will serve the first fruits that these trees will bear to MDA personnel. I owe you my life and much more. I am in your debt for saving me so I can be with my family. You saved my life, you deserve a lot. As for you, the MDA youth, thanks to what you do every day on your volunteer work, lives are saved. I thank you. You are always invited to come here and enjoy this beautiful place.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo & Video Credit: MDA spokesperson Unit)