Twenty-one years ago, while the Drori family was preparing dinner, 2-year-old Tzur disappeared. The worried family went into the yard to look for him, and found him unconscious in the pond at the entrance.
“It was a terrifying sight,” recalled Limor, Tzur’s mother. “I ran to call my mother who is a nurse, in the meantime a neighbor who saw us ran to get another neighbor, Dr. Yisrael Julius. He, along with my mother, started to perform CPR, and we called MDA at the same time.”
MDA Paramedic Ziv Kleinbart and EMT Hoter Attias arrived and realized that every minute is critical. “When we arrived at the scene we saw the doctor and the grandmother performing CPR,” said Kleinbart, who today is deputy regional manager of the Ayalon Region.
“We immediately started ventilating Tzur. We continued with the CPR, including drug therapy and chest compressions, and rushed him to Kaplan Hospital while fighting for his life.”
To the surprise of the medical teams, Tzur regained consciousness four days later — on the first night of Chanukah — with no neurological damage.
21 years later, the MDA team met with Tzur and the extended Drori family.
“Our Tzur is alive thanks to you,” said Limor. “He was sedated and ventilated for four days in the intensive care unit. The doctors told us his chances of recovery were slim, and then he suddenly woke up on the day we lit the first candle for Chanukah.
“We celebrated the festival as well as our own miracle, and ever since then Tzur gets two birthday presents each year.”
Tzur presented the MDA team with flowers and a letter of thanks. “Meeting the MDA team that saved my life and to be able to thank them in person is amazing,” said Tzur. “I just don’t have the words. I am alive today thanks to you — you are angels.”
Tzur is arranging a first-aid course in his yeshiva, so that everyone will know how to save lives.
“A meeting like this one fills you with unbelievable strength. You can see the baby that you saved is alive and kicking, and that’s an indescribable feeling. It’s at these sorts of moments that you understand how MDA’s mission is just incredible,” said Attias.