Early one morning, Ofer Churdekar, 49, awoke with severe chest pain. As he began driving himself from his home in Petach Tikva to the hospital, he stopped at a red light, went into cardiac arrest, and collapsed at the wheel.

A passerby noticed that Churdekar was in distress, and in addition to calling Magen David Adom, gave chest massages to Churdekar.

“I don’t remember much,” reflects Churdekar. “When I woke up, I thought we’d had an accident on the way to the hospital because the last thing I remember is driving. I was lucky it happened at a red light and I was stopped. I had had chest pain in the two days preceding the incident, but not at an alarming level.”

Soon, MDA EMTs Aviel Buttoni and Tamer Azzam began advanced resuscitation while administering an electric shock from a defibrillator, getting Churdekar’s heart to beat again.

Churdekar’s heart stopped beating moments later, until MDA paramedics Daniel Karwani and Tomer Fine arrived and gave Churdekar two more electric shocks as part of their resuscitation efforts. Churdekar’s heart began beating again and he was conscious when he was transported to the hospital.

“This incident ended miraculously because you could have, God forbid, lost consciousness while driving and you could have been injured in a car accident,” said paramedics Karwani and Fine to Churdekar at a reunion after Churdekar recoverd. “We evacuated you when you were vaguely conscious but communicating and responding. We are happy to see you smiling now with your wife and children.”

“I don’t know how to thank you,” said Churdekar to the MDA team. “You came and acted quickly. You saved my life.”