“Abba collapsed and he is lying on the ground. It appears he cannot move” the 11-year-old child explained to the Magen David Adom dispatcher.
A frum father and his 11-year-old son went on a hike last week near Mayan Ein Koves in northern Israel. The two were hiking for about two hours, until suddenly, the father collapsed and lost consciousness, apparently due to the heat. The son looked around and realized they were alone. The 11-year-old did not see anyone around. He did not panic or hesitate, however and took his dad’s kosher phone and called the police, and the police dispatcher connected him to MDA.
The child explained the situation to the dispatcher. He was asked to give the phone to an adult, but he explained that he was the only one available. The dispatcher immediately understood the severity of the situation and began speaking with the child to have him act to save his father until an ambulance arrived.
The dispatcher tried her best to understand the dad’s condition based on the son’s limited description of the situation. “When you speak to abba, does he respond? Does he have any medical conditions? Did he drink water? Is he breathing? Does he have a pulse?”
The child responded to each question, maintaining his composure, explaining abba was down and unable to help himself. “I think he is literally drained, as we were walking for two hours and he simply collapsed. I do not think that he has any medical conditions. The youth was directed to check pulse and breathing, and then to check their supplies to determine if there is chocolate, and if so, to begin rubbing it on his gums in the event the collapse was related to low blood sugar.
The son was instructed to check the color of dad’s lips, body temperature and more. He then was told to take their bottle of cold water and wet a towel and place it on dad’s forehead.
MDA reports the child maintain absolute calm during the entire situation, as the dispatcher worked to locate their position.
MDA contacted police and they were able to ping his phone despite being a kosher phone, thereby providing their location. The dispatcher praised the son to keep him going, as he followed instructions to the letter. He was told “The moment you hear a helicopter in the air, or an ambulance and/or police, tell me immediately.
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It was about a half hour from the time the youth phoned the police until emergency assistance reached the area. The dispatcher remained on the phone with him the entire time.
Paramedic Shimon Bismot explains when they arrived, the condition of the man was serious, and they began treating him according to protocol. The son was calm, and Shimon also had words of praise for the son, who did everything correctly, following instructions, and saved the life of his father.
The father was treated by paramedics and flown out of the area by a helicopter to Ziv Hospital in Tzefas. He was released from the hospital in good condition a few days later.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem / Photo Credit: MDA Spokesman Unit)
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6 Responses
Great story, but what’s the connection to a “kosher” phone? It’s mentioned multiple times As if there is a significance.
Father was not saved because of the K.P, rather despite the K.P
@yochi – There was a recent story where a father and son required a major search, going into Shabbos, because their kosher phone did not have any GPS capability. That might have been a turnoff for some kosher phone users. It’s nice to know that safety features exist “even on a kosher phone”.
Yochi, probably to raise awareness that law enforcement can get location data even for kosher phones.
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Because the article incorrectly uses the term “pinging,” I’ll write a little information regarding E911.
In the US, there’s E911 Phase 1 and E911 Phase 2.
E911 Phase 2 is more accurate, using the GPS chips inside a cell phone to able to determine a cell phones location from signals from space-based satellites. That data is then sent along, which can then be gathered by law enforcement.
Many kosher phones have a GPS chip and therefore would provide 911 with your exact GPS location.
For a basic kosher phone that do not have a GPS chip, Police can still activate E911 Phase 1 and request from a cell phone provider cell site, sector, and approximate distance. The location data is determined by software by triangulating the cell signal using the various antenna towers in a given area and the multiple antennas on each tower. Since each cell phone is a radio transmitter that broadcasts (and receives) signals from a system of local cell-phone antenna towers, a wireless network always “knows” where a particular phone is generally located within an area.
If the party initiated the call (as in this article), then the location data is sent to the cell switching site or gathered by software algorithms at the cell site without pinging.
On the other hand, pinging is initiated by the cellular network provider. To “ping” means to send a signal to a particular cell phone and have it respond with the requested data. It’s a signal sent to the device requesting a place update.
Some carriers do not support pinging.
Thank you for sharing this story. It’s so nice to hear about potentially disastrous situations that actually turned out well.
I agree with Yochi, though. The stress on the phone being a kosher phone is weird.
Yochi – maybe they’re tyring to encourage people to listen to gedolim who instruct to use a kosher phone, assuring them that if they’re lost, they’ll still be able to be located…
a real kiddush haShem. The kid and dispatcher worked together in such a positive manner as compared to last week when a woman drown in a car in a stream while the dispatcher was less than helpful.