In early July, Eilon Gabriel Atel met up with friends for a friendly neighborhood soccer game. Suddenly, in the middle of the game, the 13-year-old boy grabbed his chest then went into cardiac arrest and collapsed.
His frightened friends were clearheaded enough to know what to do when someone’s life is in danger: call Magen David Adom’s 101 Emergency Dispatch Center. A paramedic at the dispatch center provided Eilon’s friends with primary medical instructions and one of the friends began CPR.
Within minutes, an MDA Life Support Ambulance and a Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) arrived at the scene. MDA’s lifesaving team began performing advanced resuscitation, which included chest compressions, administering medications, and shocking Eilon’s heart with a defibrillator.
After several minutes, Eilon’s heart re-started. MDA paramedics continued medical treatment while evacuating him in the MICU to the hospital, where doctors continued to fight for his life until he regained consciousness shortly afterward.
“As soon as I arrived at the field, I saw a young boy unconscious and the people who were there performing basic resuscitation operations with guidance from the MDA dispatch center,” said Feras Rayes, a senior MDA EMT who arrived at the soccer field first.
“This is not a common situation to perform resuscitation operations on a young boy and we really fought for him,” said Amit Orenshten, an MDA paramedic. “In the first few seconds after using the defibrillator, I saw on the screen that Eilon’s heart was beating again and we were all very relieved. His friends really shouted for joy on the soccer field.”
“We have no words to thank the medic at the MDA dispatch center who instructed those how to start performing the resuscitation operations and the teams that arrived quickly at the soccer field and brought Eilon back to us,” said Meshi Atal, Eilon’s mother. “We have no doubt that without their dedicated care in the first and critical minutes, Eilon would not have been with us today. Thanks to Feras and Amit, we won him back.”
