Messages from the Hatzolah Board
The Hatzolah Board
Back: Clive Breger, Bernard Segal, Kevin Braun, Reuven Jacks
Front: Gilly Levy, Lance Abramson, David Shapiro
KevinBraun
RESPONDER&BOARDMEMBER
I was fortunate enough to attend the very
first Hatzolah training course but only
officially enrolled as a member and
dispatcher when I returned from
yeshiva
and
completed my studies. I was inspired to join
after following the example set by my father
through his sense of responsibility and
commitment to the community. Strangely,
my fear for medical trauma, which Dr
Reuven Jacks helped to allay, was a major
impetus for getting involved as part of the response team.
Subsequently I started volunteering for Hatzolah as a dispatcher 13
years ago and have been serving as a BLS responder for the past 9 years.
I havebeen amember of theHatzolah board sincemid 2013.
Our family has been involved with Hatzolah since its inception with my
father, Arnie, my brother Julian, and I all having given years of service as
both responders and dispatcherswithin the organisation.
I seemy rolewithin the organisation as an honour and a privilege. I think
that a key element to our success is our ability to stand out with our
incredible and genuine care rather than drawing attention as unique
individuals. Hatzolah itself is unique in the way its members selflessly
give of themselves and work so cohesively as a team to achieve its holy
objectives.
The combination of the highest standards possible, the best people for
the job, the warmest hearts in the business and the best equipment
available is our recipe for success.
A short anecdote
One particular call that stands out for me happened about eight years
ago when a middle aged man fell down a few stairs. My partner, Craig
Stollard, and I arrived on scene where the man was lying on the floor
almost ready to stand up and send us home. After examining our
patient we discovered that he had bumped his head and was
complaining of verymild pain in his neck. Thanks to our comprehensive
training and cautious nature we decided to immobilise our patient and
transport him to hospital. He however was having none of this. He
claimed that hewas fine and didn’t need our help and encouraged us to
leave his home while he mustered up some strength to stand up. Craig
and I spent the next 20 minutes calmly but firmly explaining how
unhappy we were to leave him untreated and ultimately managed to
convince him to let us take the necessary precautions. We duly applied
full spinal immobilisation taking the utmost care not to move his spine
out of alignment and then transported him to the nearest appropriate
medical facility. Craig and I both felt good about the way we handled
the call and agreed that our patience and caring went beyond the
normswithin the general EMS environment.
The following day we found out that our patient had actually fractured a
major vertebra in his neck and that there was an extremely high
probability that hewould have died fromsevering his spinal cord had he
been allowed to even stand up. He subsequently had spinal surgery to
repair thedamage and returnedhome after a fewdays in thehospital.
