Against All Odds
About one year ago, a call was received in MDA's 101 Dispatch Center to an unconscious patient suspected of having a stroke. MDA ambulance and mobile intensive care unit (MICU) teams attended the patient, identified the life-threatening condition, and began a race against time and against the odds.
Ambulance team Efrat Ben Zaken and Idan Ben Shlush, along with MICU team - paramedics Yitzchak Noigershel, Shaked Rontal, Guy Ganor and Netanel Eitan attended 47 year old Avi after being called to an unconscious patient. They found him lying on the floor, began immediate life-saving treatment, and having identified the nature and severity of the call, began making arrangements to take him to the nearest appropriate hospital, Shamir-Assaf Harofe.
When they arrived at hospital the doctors began to provide aggressive treatment despite assuming that Avi wouldn't survive - even telling his wife as much. Avi remained in intensive care for two weeks before suddenly regaining consciousness. Since then he underwent extensive rehabilitation that ended just two months ago.
Avi Danny: "I was given a very slim chance of survival, they didn't think I'd live until the morning. I had a brain aneurysm - a bleed - which is no joke. I invited the MDA team to an evening of thanks because I am extremely grateful to them. I was very emotional when they arrived. I don't know where I'd be without them. The fact that they took me to a specific hospital because they identified that I'd need specialized equipment, is what saved my life."
MDA Paramedics Guy Ganor and Yitzchak Noigershel: "We received the invitation to this evening, and it was very exciting to see Avi standing on his own two feet. A year ago he was between life and death and we're very proud of the journey that he's taken. When we arrived we found him unconscious on the floor. The first signs were that he was suffering from a strok. We provided him with immediate life-saving treatment, and then realized that he would need a hospital with specialized equipment. We continued to treat his symptoms on the way to hospital, but when we arrived there and after the doctors checked him, we realized that his chances of survival were very low. However, the treatment that we provided laid the foundation and enabled this rare occurrence - that Avi would wake up. This whole story is a medical miracle. It just shows us that we should never give up."
