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Matt ‘OReilly
RESPONDER
As one of the only Jews in South Africa
with a Bachelors Degree in Emergency
Medical Care. I wanted to use my skills to
help the community. I am one of
Hatzolah’s Advanced Life Support
Responders.
What makes the job so special is that I
have the opportunity genuinely to help people when they are
critically ill or injured. We have state-of-the-art equipment and
work closely with local hospitals allowing us to not only treat
patients from the start of treatment, but also to expedite
ongoing hospital treatment at the highest level.
I believe that we have a unique team of members, all with
individual skills and interests that together make this
organisation great. For example, responders interested in cycling
have used road races to raise money, responders interested in
teaching have taught CPR and responders interested in IT have
improved our electronic patient report system.
I think that there is an underlying spirit in our responders and
dispatchers - an authentic tenacity to always try to do our best to
help people in need. Being part of this energy is truly rewarding.
There are many examples that I can think of but one that I will
always remember is an emergency last year when our dispatch
received a distress call from a group of mountain bikers who
were lost in the Modderfontein Nature Reserve. One of the
cyclists had crashed and was in severe pain in his chest and
shoulder. It sounded like he had fractured a few ribs and possibly
broken his collar bone, he could not walk and there was concern
for a potential neck injury. The problemwas that we had no clue
where in the nature reserve the patient was. In true Hatzolah
style a group of responders rallied together to go "bundu
bashing" and find the patient. Let me tell you Alpha 7 and Romeo
2
are certainly not 4x4 vehicles but we were adamant - we were
going to help the patient! After about an hour of hair raising
driving and searching we eventually found the patient. His
injuries were as we suspected; the problem now was that it
would take more than an hour to get to a hospital and with his
broken bones the bumpy ride out would have caused the patient
a lot of pain. We decided not to drive the patient out. Instead, we
called for a helicopter. We made a temporary landing zone and
soon after the patient was being flown to hospital. A few days
later I followed up on the patient and thank G-d he was
recoveringwell.
ChaimSarchi
DISPATCHER&RESPONDER
Ever since I was a little boy, I was always
interested in emergency medical rescue.
During high school I worked at other EMS
services, feeding my very rewarding
passion for helping people in a time of
need. Hatzolah was the answer to the
calling I had.
Being a volunteer at Hatzolah is a great way of giving back to the
community as well as being a vital link in saving lives. To go to
bed at night knowing that you have volunteered to save a life is
extremely fulfilling. Having a network of volunteers around our
operational area allows us to have very quick response times.
The Hatzolah team is a tightly knit family with one goal and
passion – to save lives!
I had the pleasure of treating an elderly couple on a number of
occasions, who had survived the Holocaust. Every time we took
the one spouse to hospital, the other spouse would come with.
They were both very frail and it was effectively caring for 2
people every time. The husband said tome that all the Jews who
died in theHolocaust wouldbe very proud of Hatzolah.
