Meeting the need

Radio Hayah spoke with Eli Beer.

Arabic

I’m with Eli Beer the founder of United Hatzalah, Now Eli what is United Hatzalah?

So, let me pronounce it right Hatzalah, ok so Hatzlahah means success, Hatzalah means saving lives, A rescue, In Hebrew when someone needs help, he says Hatzilu, So Hatzalah is saving and United is Uniting people from everywhere in one mission.

When were you started and what inspired you to start an organization like this?

So I actually grew up in Jerusalem as a kid and when I was 6 years old I was near a bus that blew up, a number 12 bus in 1978, I was only a kid and I saw people dying right in front of my eyes, so it pushed me towards it when I grew up I said the only way to cope with this trauma that I saw is by becoming a doctor and when I was 15 years old I went to volunteer in an ambulance here in Jerusalem, I went to do the course to become an emergence medical technician and I went to volunteer in the back of an ambulance and I realized after a year and a half of volunteering in the back of an ambulance that it is almost impossible to save people because we don’t get there fast enough, It would take us 15 -20 minutes to get to an emergency, if someone was not breathing we would get there and the person would be dead already and I realized something has to be changed and then a 7 year old boy choked from eating a hotdog and it took us 21 minutes to get there to this kid, It was in the south part of Jerusalem and when we got there the mother was devastated, she was in a panic attack “Why didn’t we get there earlier” she thought it took us 2 hours but it took us 21 minutes and we couldn’t save this kid, Unfortunately this kid passed away and at that moment I realized that if we had people surrounding this kid who would respond to the emergency before us we would save lives, so I decided to create a flash mob of life savers volunteers will be trained as EMT’s and have medical supplies with them all the time and they will stop everything they do and run to save other people and that is how I started, I was 16 years old, 15 of my friends joined and we bought these motor cycles, we equipped them as ambulances, so we called it an ambucycle  and the volunteers were ready to go any time day or night, rescues people, save people, be the servants of people and that is how we started with 15 people and that is how it grew to were it is today, over 6000 volunteers.

And the key is being the first on the scene of an incident isn’t it?

The key is to be there before the 2 minutes, 90 second response, that is our mission, so we have people everywhere who are on call Imagine to yourself someone is choking now, they call for help, their next door neighbor who is a plumber, that is what he does for a living he gets an alert on his phone that this kid is choking, he stops his job or he leaves his home and he runs out to save this kid and he is an EMT, he’s a volunteer EMT, he does work as a  plumber, that is how he makes a living but these people all volunteers and they are all ready to go 24/7 so that is why we get there in 90 seconds.

So, what percentage of people are saved because you are there so quickly?

It is an interesting question because worldwide you know the American heart association says that if you get to someone within the first 2 minutes and you shock them with a defibrillator, someone with a cardiac arrest you have a 90% chance of saving, every minute after is 10% less, the rate of life savings in the world of people who have cardiac arrest are less than 2%, could you imagine less than 2% are saved people who have cardiac arrest in the street, in their home, here in Israel we are over 28% of success of cardiac arrest because we get there in the first 2 minutes, Now I am not saying we are fine with this result, we want to get to 90 % rate but don’t forget sometimes people call too late, they call a few minutes after this thing happens, so our goal is to get people alerted, that if something happens don’t think twice call United Hatzalah, call these volunteers, we have everyone ready to go and eventually when we have 90 second response everywhere in Israel we will be there and have 90% rate of success.

So, people will call you before the ambulance?

 Yes, because when we get the alert, we will notify the ambulances as well that we have our people on the way but the most important thing before the ambulance because the ambulance is a transporter vehicle, we want first responders on the scene immediately before the ambulance.

So, when an emergence comes in what is the procedure, what happens?  

So an emergency comes in and our dispatch down stairs here in Jerusalem, the heart of Jerusalem we have alerts that go out to the closest 5 volunteers to every emergency through an app that we created and these volunteers are supervised by dispatchers here to make sure that they are going to the right direction, everything is automated, everything is technology here, we have the best technology in the world when it comes to locating EMS people and we make sure they get there on time, we train these volunteers every year to make sure they are on the top knowledge of everything, they get a defibrillator  they get medical supplies, we have people from all around the world who support this, who buy these defibrillators these medical supplies and we give it out to the volunteers, so they are like messengers to lifesavers, so we go out to about 2000 emergancies every day.

And you have motorcycles because you can get through traffic faster yeah?

Yes because you see ambulances stuck in traffic everywhere, any country around the world that you look around the window in the main cities you see ambulances stuck, motorcycles don’t get stuck they can go in between cars they are narrow enough to go and get there fast and they are equipped with everything an ambulance has  so they get there fast, they save people.

What sort of emergancies are your responders called out to?

About 1 hour ago we had a woman she was on the way to hospital and the baby decided to come out, she was pregnant, her husband calls for help because the baby is coming out at the side of the road. Guess what? 90 seconds later we had 2 United Hatzalah volunteers delivering this baby, healthy baby, we had in the Golan Heights I was down in dispatch someone had a cardiac arrest 62 years old cardiac arrest volunteers from Hispin which is a city which it happened in, in the Golan heights were there right away and they saved this person, we have heart attacks, strokes, car accidents, unfortunately terror attacks, unfortunately happening a lot and any other disaster  that people have we are there .

And these are just people who are volunteering doing their every day Job but responding quickly to an incident.

Yes these are volunteers who are ready to go and help people and they never know who they are going to meet, they never know if they are going to meet a Jew, an Arab a Christian, Druse, they don’t know if they are going to meet their mother, they are going to meet their neighbor or they are going to meet someone they have never met before, they go and help people because they are helping doing God’s work. And that is the idea about this organization because they are here to be the messengers of life savers and be there the first.

Do you know how many people you have saved?

Well we have treated over 5 million people since we started, In a day we save about 140 – 150 people a day, that are saved because we treat a lot of people that are OK, by the time we get there they feel better  but 150 people a day that we know that are between life and death that we saved.

You also run some other programs; what other programs do you run?

So we started, because of what we do we realized like elderly people, holocaust survivors or people who are older people who don’t have families, alone, many times we would find them a week or two after  dead in their homes which was a disaster to see every single time and we realized that these people, no one really pays attention to them, no one cares about them, they don’t want to go to their doctors because they are just sick and tired of waiting in a waiting room for so long, so they don’t go, so we started adopting elderly people and we go once a week to do a full check up on them, that is a program we call give respect and it is an incredible program and we have 700 elderly people who are like that who are lonely that we treat. We have a program that is a cycle trauma unit program, the same way we go and help people that are having a medical problem, people have emotional problems, that they just saw a bad disaster, they just saw a bad accident or they saw a fire or a terror attack and they saw people die, they need emotional help. We have professional people who are trained for that, they get there within the first 15 minutes and save them from going onto post traumatic stress, so these programs are developed because of what we did and saw the need of these things.

Now your life was in danger just recently with Covid 19 tell us what happened?

I was in Miami, I was traveling raising money for United Hatzalah and I had a few events that I was supposed to be there and I felt a little tickling In my throat and then I had a fever and I said “Oh Boy” no one was sick in Miami everyone was healthy but I was just coming back from London and I said “maybe on the plane I don’t know what, I’m going to go and isolate myself and be in quarantine” 3 days later I couldn’t breathe anymore, I went to hospital in Miami, University of Miami and I was admitted right away to the ICU and 3 days later they told me they have to induce me into a coma and intubate me, My situation was critical, I was literally in a situation of life and death and I was there for almost a month in a coma fighting for my life and it was a miracle, big, big miracle, I had millions of people that were praying from all over the world and it was just, if it wasn’t for the prayers I wouldn’t have been alive.

Yes, I was going to ask you were special prayers actually said for you?

I had incredible prayers said by…. I could tell you one little child 12 years old he was turning 13 he said and he called me after when I woke up through my daughter, my daughter treats children with Cancer, he has cancer with a very bad condition and he was praying for me 3 times a day and saying special prayers for me and he said to me on the phone “You should just know I was praying for you, I want you to recover” and I was saying “you need prayers” he said “no, no, no, I prayed for you because when I grow up I want to be a volunteer of United Hatzalah so I want you to be healthy”. And I was crying when I heard it, I had so many people praying, I had every religion, people from all over the world that cared about my life because I was fighting for you know I still have a long mission in front of me, I want to save more and more people and I got sick and people realized this organization is crucial and I had people putting in time and effort and doing good deeds, before I was incubated I  came out with a video I could hardly speak, and I asked people to please pray for me and do good deeds and support the organization and people listened and people were all over just praying and I felt that energy, I was in a different world but I was pulled back to this world, I was literally pulled back by the prayers of people to God to just save me.

Do you have effects from the virus today and do you have a new lease of life now because you have actually come through this?

 So, I was reborn again right (Laughs) I have energy, it took me time to get back to myself a lot of physiotherapy and someone asked me yesterday he said “Eli are you back to normal?”  I said “No, I’m working only 12 hours a day now” So I used to work 18 hours a day I take 4 hours now to relax a little and I have more time for my children, my family and I am back full force but I need a little more strength to get back what I used to be so I have a long way in front of me.

Now you were in the United States, what was it like coming back to Jerusalem?

Well it was an incredible feeling, when I landed in Israel the airport was shut down so they had to open the airport especially for a favor for one of the most incredible people I know Dr Miriam Andleson, she took care of me and she sent a plane to pick me up, she owns planes and she and her husband were very you know cared about my situation so they actually helped me get back here and when I got back and landed in the land of Israel, its so holy here, such a holy place, I felt incredible energy coming into my body, I told my family I was crying and I said a special prayer Shema Israel (Hear, O Israel)  when I landed and then I saw Jerusalem and I saw the western wall was crying there and said a special prayer to God for letting me live, It was a battle you know and I feel lucky that I am back in this country.

It must have been special coming back into the office since that?

Oh yeah, when I came back here it was like I said to all my friends here “Please don’t do a ceremony, don’t do a ceremony I just want to come back normally” and they all waited for me on the roof here on the top, I was like it was beautiful to see it but I was like and right across from here, I don’t know if you can see it here where we are sitting getting interviewed that mountain is Samuel’s tomb, Biblical Samuel and being here it’s such a beautiful place in the Centre of Jerusalem and being with the volunteers that are always making sure that they are ready to save other people so the energy here is incredible So I was happy to be back.

Now I imagine it costs a lot of money to run this organization, do people from all around the world sponsor a motor bike?

Yeah you know I had an incredible experience, I had one person in Miami, you know a lot of people all around the world but one person heard my situation and he was so moved away and he is actually an evangelical great person, loves Israel, loves humanity and he went ahead and he wrote a post to his friends , I want to raise a bike, I have to remember the name but he called like his campaign  like Passover Sunday or something saving life, Passover something and he raised enough money to buy an ambucycle and it was just incredible, Incredible.

Would you like to see this all around the world?

Yes, actually we help start this in many countries around the world and I would love this idea a volunteers ambucycles technology spread everywhere around the world and United Hatzalah has the potential of helping everyone start this, its so simple, Get volunteers, train them and then they should just respond to emergancies and just be there until the ambulance shows up, Easy!.

Why do you do what you do?

Because I love saving people’s lives, its my passion, I always done it since I was 15 years old, I tried doing it when I was 15, I saw the need when I was 6 years old when I saw the bomb attack and I realized how easy it is, So I got you know it’s like an addiction once you save 1 life you want to save more it says in the Torah “You save 1 life you save the entire world”  So could you imagine every time I save a life, its an entire world and why stop if you are successful in saving lives, just continue doing it.

What is your prayer finally for the future of the organization?

My prayer that people should never get sick, never get ill, never get injuries that is my prayer but if someone does we should be there on time to save that person and that is what I want, I want to make sure that our volunteers doesn’t have work because people don’t get sick but if people do we will be there fast enough and really now that the Covid 19 hit the whole world and we see how fragile this world is, with one little tiny disease you could destroy the world, We have to care more about each other, love more each other and think how to fight these diseases by cooperation between religions, in cultures and countries and put our focus in that instead of focusing in politics and stuff . So hopefully Israel is a connecting point for all religions, it says “the word of God comes out from Israel, From Zion” That’s what it says, the word of God comes out of Zion, that is where most of the great religions started from, So I really hope that this situation now will make this world more connected to fight terrible things.

And what is your website for people who’d like to know more, perhaps someone would like to sponsor a motorcycle themselves, or a church would like to sponsor a motorcycle, tell us your website?

Oh, that is great, I would love to have people in churches sponsor Ambucycles, our website is     www.israelrescue.org

Very easy  www.israelrescue.org and people can go on learn more, my email is there so people can contact my email is eli@israelrescue.org and people can send me an email if they want to sponsor anything. We have a lot of different ways of being apart of this thing and I really hope that this idea should be implemented everywhere in the world and anyone who wants to be apart of saving lives in this country in Israel could be part of United Hatzalah.