At 6:30 AM on October 7, Yoni Rozenfeld, United Hatzalah district coordinator for Jerusalem and a helicopter paramedic, was awakened by a call from the United Hatzalah transport coordinator, who informed him about the missile attacks in the south and requested him to drive an urgent care ambulance to the area.
At that early hour, Rozenfeld had no idea of the scope and seriousness of the attack and, assuming that it was yet another in the usual series of Hamas rocket attacks, did not want to go.
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An hour later, he received another call, this time from the United Hatzalah call center, requesting a medical consultation. Rozenfeld, who is not a doctor, realized that the fact that other doctors were unavailable meant that something was amiss. Hatzalah patched the call from the paramedic to Rozenfeld.
“The victim has wounds in his stomach and chest,” the paramedic told him. “I asked the paramedic how he had gotten wounded,” recalls Rozenfeld. “How had missiles turned into gunshot wounds? I had never imagined, in my darkest dreams, that terrorists would enter Israel and begin shooting. It was a shock.”
Rozenfeld asked the medic why he had not yet evacuated the wounded man to a hospital, and when he answered that he couldn’t leave with him because of the terrorists shooting in the area, he was paralyzed with fear.
“I realized I had to do something,” he recalled. He began writing to doctors and paramedics on various WhatsApp groups, requesting they head south to treat the wounded.
He then received a call from the head of United Hatzalah’s helicopter team, requesting that he ready himself for paramedic helicopter duties. Rozenfeld loaded his car with medical equipment and quickly drove to the United Hatzalah staging area at Cheletz Junction, just outside Sderot, meeting the helicopter that had just arrived from Sdeh Teman.
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Rozenfeld boarded the helicopter, which was outfitted with state-of-the-art medical equipment, and within minutes, it was aloft carrying two wounded soldiers.
“One of the soldiers had been seriously wounded with a wound in the stomach and had severe internal bleeding,” he says. “At first, he was conscious, but then he went into shock, and his pulse began to race.”
Rozenfeld stabilized him throughout the 20-minute flight to Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center. As soon as they landed, the medical teams rushed to tend to the wounded soldiers and immediately began medical treatment. Rozenfeld reports that the critically injured soldier recovered and was recently discharged from the hospital.
The helicopter refueled and returned to the south.
“The atmosphere was frightening with sirens and rockets falling and the possibility of terrorist infiltration,” said Rozenfeld.
He resumed his helicopter paramedic duties and was requested to fly to Soroka Medical Center and transport wounded soldiers to Hadassah. Soroka was overloaded with incoming wounded, and Rozenfeld participated in two evacuations to Hadassah.
In the months prior to the October attack, Rozenfeld had conducted trauma training sessions for young Hatzalah volunteers who had never worked in mass trauma situations. The practice sessions paid off, he said, and many people are alive today because of the skills they had reviewed. In July, he conducted another training session on emergency treatment during a mass shooting.
“Many volunteers told me that because of this drill, they knew what to do that day. People are alive because of this training. On October 7, we were game-changers. Without United Hatzalah, hundreds more would have died.”
The Jerusalem Post is proud to partner with United Hatzalah on the Lights and Lifesavers project to honor the October 7 massacre heroes of Hanukkah. To support the country’s first responders, visit www.jpost.1eye.us/lifesavers2023.