MDA israel

The Drori family will never forget that night in 2001. As they prepared for dinner, Tzur, two years old at the time, disappeared. The worried family went into the yard to look for him, and found him unconscious in the pond at the entrance.

"It was a terrifying sight," recalled Limor, Tzur's mother. "I ran to call my mother who is a nurse, in the meantime a neighbor who saw us ran to get another neighbor, Dr. Yisrael Julius. He, along with my mother, started to perform CPR, and we called MDA at the same time."

When the MDA team arrived, led by Paramedic Ziv Kleinbart and mobile intensive care unit (MICU) driver EMT Hoter Attias – today MDA's chief of security - they realized that every minute is critical. Ziv Kleinbart is today Deputy Regional Manager in the Ayalon Region and still continues to do shifts on the MICUs. He recalled: "When we arrived at the scene we saw the doctor and the grandmother performing CPR. We immediately started ventilating Tzur, we continued with the CPR, including drug therapy and chest compressions, and rushed him to Kaplan Hospital while fighting for his life." To the surprise of the medical teams, Tzur regained consciousness three days later – on the first night of Hannukah – with no neurological damage.

21 years later, the MDA team met with Tzur and the extended Drori family.

Tzur's parents, Limor and Elad Drori: "Our Tzur is alive thanks to you. It was a few days a few days before Hannukah, and he was sedated and ventilated for four days in the intensive care unit. The doctors told that his chances of recovery were slim, and then he suddenly woke up on the day we lit the first candle for Hannukah. We celebrated the festival, as well as our own miracle, and ever since then, Tzur gets two birthday presents each year."

Tzur presented the MDA team with a bunch of flowers and a thank you letter: "Meeting the MDA team that saved my life, and to be able to thank them in person, is amazing. I can't quite comprehend it. It's something that will take me time to understand, I just don't have the words. I am alive today thanks to you – you are angels. Thanks to you I'm arranging a first aid course in my Yeshiva, so that everyone will know how to save lives."

Ayalon Deputy Regional Manager Ziv Kleinbart, and MDA Chief of Security Hoter Attias: "It was lucky that Tzur fell into the pond on a winter's day, because the cold water reduced the body's need for energy. The CPR that was performed by Tzur's grandmother and neighbor, along with our fast arrival at the scene, helped save Tzur. A meeting like this one fills you unbelievable strength. You can see the baby that you saved is alive and kicking, and that's an indescribably feeling. It's at these sorts of moments that you understand how MDA's mission is just incredible."