The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle
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0:00 - 0:03This is an ambucycle.
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0:03 - 0:08This is the fastest way to reach any medical emergency.
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0:08 - 0:12It has everything an ambulance has except for a bed.
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0:12 - 0:16You see the defibrillator. You see the equipment.
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0:16 - 0:19We all saw the tragedy that happened in Boston.
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0:19 - 0:21When I was looking at these pictures,
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0:21 - 0:24it brought me back many years to my past
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0:24 - 0:26when I was a child.
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0:26 - 0:29I grew up in a small neighborhood in Jerusalem.
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0:29 - 0:33When I was six years old, I was walking back from school
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0:33 - 0:37on a Friday afternoon with my older brother.
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0:37 - 0:39We were passing by a bus stop.
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0:39 - 0:43We saw a bus blow up in front of our eyes.
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0:43 - 0:48The bus was on fire, and many people were hurt and killed.
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0:48 - 0:50I remembered an old man
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0:50 - 0:54yelling to us and crying to help us get him up.
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0:54 - 0:56He just needed someone helping him.
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0:56 - 1:00We were so scared and we just ran away.
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1:00 - 1:03Growing up, I decided I wanted to become a doctor and save lives.
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1:03 - 1:06Maybe that was because of what I saw when I was a child.
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1:06 - 1:10When I was 15, I took an EMT course,
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1:10 - 1:13and I went to volunteer on an ambulance.
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1:13 - 1:16For two years, I volunteered on an ambulance in Jerusalem.
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1:16 - 1:18I helped many people,
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1:18 - 1:21but whenever someone really needed help,
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1:21 - 1:23I never got there in time. We never got there.
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1:23 - 1:26The traffic is so bad. The distance, and everything.
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1:26 - 1:29We never got there when somebody really needed us.
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1:29 - 1:31One day, we received a call about a seven-year-old child
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1:31 - 1:33choking from a hot dog.
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1:33 - 1:35Traffic was horrific, and we were coming from
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1:35 - 1:39the other side of town in the north part of Jerusalem.
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1:39 - 1:41When we got there, 20 minutes later,
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1:41 - 1:43we started CPR on the kid.
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1:43 - 1:47A doctor comes in from a block away,
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1:47 - 1:52stop us, checks the kid, and tells us to stop CPR.
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1:52 - 1:56That second he declared this child dead.
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1:56 - 1:59At that moment, I understood
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1:59 - 2:02that this child died for nothing.
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2:02 - 2:05If this doctor, who lived one block away from there,
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2:05 - 2:07would have come 20 minutes earlier,
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2:07 - 2:10not have to wait until that siren he heard before
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2:10 - 2:11coming from the ambulance,
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2:11 - 2:14if he would have heard about it way before,
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2:14 - 2:16he would have saved this child.
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2:16 - 2:18He could have run from a block away.
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2:18 - 2:20He could have saved this child.
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2:20 - 2:23I said to myself, there must be a better way.
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2:23 - 2:24Together with 15 of my friends --
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2:24 - 2:26we were all EMTs —
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2:26 - 2:28we decided, let's protect our neighborhood,
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2:28 - 2:30so when something like that happens again,
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2:30 - 2:34we will be there running to the scene a lot before the ambulance.
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2:34 - 2:37So I went over to the manager of the ambulance company
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2:37 - 2:39and I told him, "Please, whenever you have a call
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2:39 - 2:41coming into our neighborhood,
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2:41 - 2:43we have 15 great guys who are willing
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2:43 - 2:45to stop everything they're doing and run and save lives.
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2:45 - 2:47Just alert us by beeper.
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2:47 - 2:49We'll buy these beepers, just tell your dispatch
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2:49 - 2:53to send us the beeper, and we will run and save lives."
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2:53 - 3:00Well, he was laughing. I was 17 years old. I was a kid.
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3:00 - 3:03And he said to me — I remember this like yesterday —
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3:03 - 3:06he was a great guy, but he said to me,
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3:06 - 3:10"Kid, go to school, or go open a falafel stand.
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3:10 - 3:14We're not really interested in these kinds of new adventures.
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3:14 - 3:18We're not interested in your help." And he threw me out of the room.
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3:18 - 3:20"I don't need your help," he said.
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3:20 - 3:24I was a very stubborn kid.
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3:24 - 3:27As you see now, I'm walking around like crazy, meshugenah.
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3:27 - 3:32(Laughter) (Applause)
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3:32 - 3:36So I decided to use the Israeli very famous technique
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3:36 - 3:40you've probably all heard of, chutzpah. (Laughter)
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3:40 - 3:45And the next day, I went and I bought two police scanners,
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3:45 - 3:46and I said, "The hell with you, if you don't want
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3:46 - 3:49to give me information, I'll get the information myself."
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3:49 - 3:53And we did turns, who's going to listen to the radio scanners.
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3:53 - 3:55The next day, while I was listening to the scanners,
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3:55 - 3:59I heard about a call coming in of a 70-year-old man
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3:59 - 4:02hurt by a car only one block away from me
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4:02 - 4:05on the main street of my neighborhood.
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4:05 - 4:08I ran there by foot. I had no medical equipment.
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4:08 - 4:11When I got there, the 70-year-old man
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4:11 - 4:14was lying on the floor, blood was gushing out of his neck.
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4:14 - 4:15He was on Coumadin.
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4:15 - 4:20I knew I had to stop his bleeding or else he would die.
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4:20 - 4:23I took off my yarmulke, because I had no medical equipment,
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4:23 - 4:25and with a lot of pressure, I stopped his bleeding.
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4:25 - 4:27He was bleeding from his neck.
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4:27 - 4:30When the ambulance arrived 15 minutes later,
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4:30 - 4:33I gave them over a patient who was alive.
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4:33 - 4:41(Applause)
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4:41 - 4:43When I went to visit him two days later,
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4:43 - 4:45he gave me a hug and was crying
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4:45 - 4:48and thanking me for saving his life.
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4:48 - 4:51At that moment, when I realized this is the first person
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4:51 - 4:54I ever saved in my life after two years volunteering in an ambulance,
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4:54 - 4:57I knew this is my life's mission.
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4:57 - 5:01So today, 22 years later, we have United Hatzalah.
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5:01 - 5:08(Applause)
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5:08 - 5:11"Hatzalah" means "rescue," for all of you who don't know Hebrew.
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5:11 - 5:13I forgot I'm not in Israel.
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5:13 - 5:16So we have thousands of volunteers
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5:16 - 5:19who are passionate about saving lives,
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5:19 - 5:21and they're spread all around, so whenever a call comes in,
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5:21 - 5:26they just stop everything and go and run and save a life.
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5:26 - 5:28Our average response time today
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5:28 - 5:32went down to less than three minutes in Israel.
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5:32 - 5:36(Applause)
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5:36 - 5:37I'm talking about heart attacks,
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5:37 - 5:39I'm talking about car accidents,
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5:39 - 5:42God forbid bomb attacks, shootings, whatever it is,
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5:42 - 5:44even a woman 3 o'clock in the morning
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5:44 - 5:46falling in her home and needs someone to help her.
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5:46 - 5:49Three minutes, we'll have a guy with his pajamas
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5:49 - 5:52running to her house and helping her get up.
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5:52 - 5:55The reasons why we're so successful are because of three things.
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5:55 - 5:57Thousands of passionate volunteers
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5:57 - 5:59who will leave everything they do
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5:59 - 6:02and run to help people they don't even know.
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6:02 - 6:04We're not there to replace ambulances.
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6:04 - 6:06We're just there
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6:06 - 6:12to get the gap between the ambulance call until they arrive.
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6:12 - 6:17And we save people that otherwise would not be saved.
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6:17 - 6:20The second reason is because of our technology.
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6:20 - 6:22You know, Israelis are good in technology.
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6:22 - 6:25Every one of us has on his phone, no matter what kind of phone,
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6:25 - 6:28a GPS technology done by NowForce,
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6:28 - 6:30and whenever a call comes in,
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6:30 - 6:32the closest five volunteers get the call,
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6:32 - 6:35and they actually get there really quick,
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6:35 - 6:39and navigated by a traffic navigator to get there and not waste time.
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6:39 - 6:41And this is a great technology we use all over the country
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6:41 - 6:42and reduce the response time.
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6:42 - 6:45And the third thing are these ambucycles.
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6:45 - 6:48These ambucycles are an ambulance on two wheels.
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6:48 - 6:50We don't transfer people, but we stabilize them,
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6:50 - 6:51and we save their lives.
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6:51 - 6:54They never get stuck in traffic. They could even go on a sidewalk.
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6:54 - 6:57They never, literally, get stuck in traffic.
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6:57 - 6:59That's why we get there so fast.
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6:59 - 7:01A few years after I started this organization,
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7:01 - 7:03in a Jewish community,
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7:03 - 7:06two Muslims from east Jerusalem called me up.
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7:06 - 7:08They ask me to meet. They wanted to meet with me.
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7:08 - 7:11Muhammad Asli and Murad Alyan.
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7:11 - 7:13When Muhammad told me his personal story,
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7:13 - 7:16how his father, 55 years old, collapsed at home,
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7:16 - 7:17had a cardiac arrest,
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7:17 - 7:19and it took over an hour for an ambulance arrive,
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7:19 - 7:21and he saw his father die in front of his eyes,
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7:21 - 7:25he asked me, "Please start this in east Jerusalem."
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7:25 - 7:28I said to myself, I saw so much tragedy, so much hate,
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7:28 - 7:32and it's not about saving Jews. It's not about saving Muslims.
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7:32 - 7:35It's not about saving Christians. It's about saving people.
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7:35 - 7:38So I went ahead, full force --
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7:38 - 7:42(Applause) —
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7:42 - 7:46and I started United Hatzalah in east Jerusalem,
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7:46 - 7:48and that's why the names United
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7:48 - 7:50and Hatzalah match so well.
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7:50 - 7:54We started hand in hand saving Jews and Arabs.
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7:54 - 7:56Arabs were saving Jews. Jews were saving Arabs.
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7:56 - 7:58Something special happened.
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7:58 - 8:01Arabs and Jews, they don't always get along together,
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8:01 - 8:02but here in this situation,
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8:02 - 8:04the communities, literally,
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8:04 - 8:06it's an unbelievable situation that happened,
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8:06 - 8:08the diversities, all of a sudden they had a common interest:
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8:08 - 8:10Let's save lives together.
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8:10 - 8:13Settlers were saving Arabs and Arabs were saving settlers.
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8:13 - 8:14It's an unbelievable concept that could work
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8:14 - 8:18only when you have such a great cause.
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8:18 - 8:19And these are all volunteers.
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8:19 - 8:21No one is getting money.
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8:21 - 8:24They're all doing it for the purpose of saving lives.
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8:24 - 8:27When my own father collapsed a few years ago
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8:27 - 8:29from a cardiac arrest, one of the first volunteers
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8:29 - 8:31to arrive to save my father
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8:31 - 8:33was one of these Muslim volunteers from east Jerusalem
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8:33 - 8:37who was in the first course to join Hatzalah.
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8:37 - 8:38And he saved my father.
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8:38 - 8:43Could you imagine how I felt in that moment?
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8:43 - 8:46When I started this organization, I was 17 years old.
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8:46 - 8:49I never imagined that one day I'd be speaking at TEDMED.
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8:49 - 8:51I never even knew what TEDMED was then.
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8:51 - 8:54I don't think it existed, but I never imagined,
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8:54 - 8:56I never imagined that it's going to go all around,
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8:56 - 8:57it's going to spread around,
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8:57 - 9:01and this last year we started in Panama and Brazil.
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9:01 - 9:04All I need is a partner who is a little meshugenah like me,
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9:04 - 9:07passionate about saving lives, and willing to do it.
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9:07 - 9:11And I'm actually starting it in India very soon
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9:11 - 9:15with a friend who I met in Harvard just a while back.
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9:15 - 9:18Hatzalah actually started in Brooklyn by a Hasidic Jew
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9:18 - 9:21years before us in Williamsburg,
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9:21 - 9:23and now it's all over the Jewish community in New York,
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9:23 - 9:27even Australia and Mexico and many other Jewish communities.
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9:27 - 9:28But it could spread everywhere.
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9:28 - 9:31It's very easy to adopt.
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9:31 - 9:33You even saw these volunteers in New York
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9:33 - 9:36saving lives in the World Trade Center.
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9:36 - 9:40Last year alone, we treated in Israel 207,000 people.
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9:40 - 9:45Forty-two thousand of them were life-threatening situations.
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9:45 - 9:47And we made a difference.
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9:47 - 9:49I guess you could call this a lifesaving flash mob,
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9:49 - 9:52and it works.
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9:52 - 9:54When I look all around here,
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9:54 - 9:58I see lots of people who would go an extra mile,
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9:58 - 10:00run an extra mile to save other people,
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10:00 - 10:03no matter who they are, no matter what religion,
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10:03 - 10:06no matter who, where they come from.
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10:06 - 10:08We all want to be heroes.
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10:08 - 10:11We just need a good idea, motivation
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10:11 - 10:13and lots of chutzpah,
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10:13 - 10:15and we could save millions of people
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10:15 - 10:17that otherwise would not be saved.
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10:17 - 10:19Thank you very much.
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10:19 - 10:24(Applause)
- Title:
- The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle
- Speaker:
- Eli Beer
- Description:
-
As a young EMT on a Jerusalem ambulance, Eli Beer realized that, stuck in brutal urban traffic, they often arrived too late to help. So he organized a group of volunteer EMTs -- many on foot -- ready to drop everything and dash to save lives in their neighborhood. Today, United Hatzlah uses a smartphone app and a fleet of “ambucycles” to help nearby patients until an ambulance arrives. With an average response time of 3 minutes, last year, they treated 207,000 people in Israel. And the idea is going global.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 10:44
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Thu-Huong Ha approved English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Thu-Huong Ha edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Morton Bast accepted English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle | ||
Joseph Geni edited English subtitles for The fastest ambulance? A motorcycle |