It was Saturday night when Ilan Keshet (67) returned from a visit with friends while traveling with his ex-wife Nurit. When the two arrived near his home in Ramat Aviv, Ilan began to feel chest pain and difficulty in breathing. Ilan immediately recognized something was wrong and felt like 15 years ago when he had an acute heart attack. He called the MDA 101 emergency line, and asked Nurit to stop at the side of the road. Within 3 minutes, emergency EMTs Issachar Weiss, Aaron Fisher, and Nati Yamin arrived. The team started to examine Ilan, and within seconds, Ilan went into cardiac arrest, lost his pulse and stopped breathing. Ilan was clinically dead.

MDA EMTs lay Ilan on the ground and immediately began performing CPR, including chest compressions and electric shock from the defibrillator. Within about two minutes of the collapse, Ilan’s pulse returned and he was able to breathe on his own. A few minutes later, when Ilan was already on the ambulance bed, just before being evacuated to the ICU, he collapsed again and lost his pulse and breath. Medic Aharon Fleishman and paramedic Yossi Bar Maoz of the MDA MICU team again performed advanced resuscitation operations that included providing another electric shock, and within a minute, his heart began to work again, and he was evacuated to the hospital, fully conscious.

A few days after the incident, when Ilan was hospitalized, they came to visit him, whom he calls “The Angels,” medics who ride MDA Medicycles, Issachar Weiss and Nati Yamin, and MDA Aaron Fischer who drives the MDA mini electrical car. The three medics who arrived Ilan in about 3 minutes and brought him back to life, we’re excited to meet him in the hospital when he was in good condition, surrounded by his family.

This is not the first time in Ilan’s life that he suffered a cardiac arrest, died clinically, and came back to life after the MDA medics and paramedics performed CPR. In 2004, Ilan sat in a business meeting with a client, beginning to feel chest pain and left-hand pain, and immediately he himself felt that it was a heart attack, as a few years ago, Ilan had a heart attack. Ilan did not hesitate and asked the customer to dial 101 and call MDA. Within minutes, MICU team arrived, performed medical examinations, and evacuated Ilan to the hospital. On the way to the hospital, Ilan suffered a cardiac arrest. Then, Ilan arrived at the hospital, conscious. In the last 15 years since the first time Ilan returned to life after clinical death, he has been under medical surveillance and has lived a full life, working as the personal director of singer Boaz Sharabi, flying abroad at least twice a year and spending time with his family and friends.

“I feel fortunate and glad that I was aware of my physical condition, knowing that it was a heart attack, and calling MDA on time. I know that I am alive today thanks to the medics and paramedics who came to me quickly this time too, like fifteen years ago, and treated me with infinite professionalism and dedication, “Ilan Keshet said. “A few days after the case, while I’m still in the ICU. Everybody for me is an angel, and I’ll always be grateful to them.”

“As a volunteer medic on an MDA Medicycle, I treat hundreds of sick and injured a month, including quite a few cases of people suffering from cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, not in many cases people come back to life after a clinical death, and when that happens, the satisfaction is immense and gives strength to continue to work day and night, on Saturday and on holiday, for the sake of saving lives,” EMT on MDA Medicycle Issachar Weiss said,” meeting with Ilan in the hospital was very powerful for me and my medics, who treated him with me, and I was always accompanied by the thought of what would happen if we arrived a few minutes later, I saw Ilan in good condition, with his family, who appreciated our work, a lot of happiness”.

MDA senior medic Aharon Fleischman, who met Ilan for the first time since the incident, said: “To this day, the picture I had of Ilan was on the ambulance bed during the treatment we gave him. Today I was very excited to see Ilan standing on his feet when he was healthy and smiling. Meeting and embracing a person like Ilan after being able to save his life gives me the strength and motivation to continually do our important life-saving mission. “

The article is a press release written by the staff at ZAKA