Israeli Friends of MDA Association hold the Annual Magen David Adom Gala Event
The annual Magen David Gala, held by the Israeli Friends of MDA Association, took place on December 15th at the David Intercontinental hotel in Tel Aviv, with the attendance of close to 500 MDA supporters, donors, MDA Director General Eli Bin, Chairman of the Board of the Israeli Friends of MDA Gil Weizer, Director General of IFMDA, Orly Ariel, distinguished and honorable guests from the business and private sector in Israel. The event, honoring the MDA teams and volunteers in celebration of their dedication and efforts in saving lives was hosted by the Israeli actress and MDA volunteer EMT, Miri Bohadana and included a special performance by the famous Israeli singer-songwriter Rita.
The fundraising Gala began with a reception, displaying MDA's advanced technology, a Dispatch Center station, showing calls - received and dispatched in real-time. MDA staff from the National Dispatch Center explained how the system worked, showing live images from incident scenes, the tracking abilities on ambulances, MICUs, and first responder vehicles, as well as the location of over 2,000 life-saving defibrillators.
Amongst the honorable guests was Maayan Zusman, the widow of the late Dr. Oren Zusman. Oren was a respected cardiologist, who died of cardiac arrest while on duty at the hospital. This tragic incident inspired Maayan to join Magen David Adom in the nationwide project aiming to distribute as many Smart AED's (automated external defibrillators) as possible in public areas across Israel. There are over 1,200 Smart AED's placed in special secured cabinets, which, in cases of cardiac arrest, are opened remotely by the MDA's dispatchers, for the benefit of the people of Israel.
Yarin Hayat, an MDA EMT dispatcher, and Tal Shprincis, who works for the Ashdod municipality, received a certificate of appreciation for saving the life of the 66 year-old Danny Atali, who went into cardiac arrest while kayaking on a lake. Yarin gave the instructions to Danny's friends over the phone, while Tal ran to get the Smart automated external defibrillator, located nearby.
The Israeli Friends of Magen David Adom Association raised over one million shekels at this fundraising gala event for ambulances, mobile intensive care units (MICUs), medicycles, other vehicles and equipment that will help save lives in Israel.
