Magen David Adom is once again under fire from chareidi volunteers for causing chilul shabbos. Those involved attribute the situation to the lack of judgment by the MDA Jerusalem dispatcher, who instructed all volunteers who responded to a CPR call to notify the dispatch center that they are en route.
The case deals with a call reported earlier by YWN-Israel dealing with an elderly woman who died from apparent swine-flu related causes, and she was pronounced dead by the on-scene physician. The dispatcher sent a message to the pagers of Betar Illit MDA personnel, instructing those who responded to the call earlier to contact the dispatcher, which they did.
They learned the dispatcher simply wanted to complete the record-keeping, nothing more, a move that should have been pushed off until after shabbos to prevent needless chilul shabbos.
MDA spokesman Danny Rotenberg tells a different story, explaining there were fears that responders may not have taken adequate precautions and the EMS organization feared persons involved in resuscitation efforts may have unwittingly exposed themselves to the illness. He added that nevertheless, MDA has “learned the lessons from the incident and dispatchers will be instructed to exhibit heightened awareness to the religious sensibilities of frum volunteers and pager messages that are not pikuach nefesh related are to be avoided on shabbos”.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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One Response
these are great headlines , however since when does yeshiva world pasken what is chilul shabbos . is yeshiva world ordained to pasken such questions. noware in this article does it say a compitint rabbi was consulted weather indeed this was chillul shabbos or not.