Modi'in Illit: two and a half year old fell from fifth floor and killed

Tragedy in Brachfeld the city of Modi'in Illit: Barry Raphael z"l, a toddler aged two and a half years old, fell on Wednesday evening from porch of the fifth floor of his home on Rav Shmuel Street - and was killed.

Neighbors who saw the fall of the child alerted the rescue. Volunteers of Hatzalah carried out lengthy resuscitation on the toddler, and he was evacuated by helicopter of the 669th unit of the IDF - to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

Arieh Shavit, Hatzalah medic, said: "The child fell from a balcony on the fifth floor and severely injured his head. I and other paramedics, with the assistance of a doctor of Hatzalah Dr. Yechiel Lin, a resident of the city, carried out lengthy resuscitation.

"From there the boy was taken towards a military helicopter which landed on Route 446 near the Nili intersection, and took him for further treatment at the hospital, in critical condition while providing respiratory assistance."

Hospital determined the child's death.

Police officials said to B'Chadrei Charedim that suspicion of negligence is being tested.

The treatment was postponed

Behind the scenes, this was reported by B'Chadrei Charedim, because of confusion and due to the power struggles between the organization Hatzalah and MDA there was severe delay in evacuating the infant to the hospital.

One of the Hatzalah volunteers Nati Levi says: "Within a minute of receiving a report on the case, two Hatzalah medics and an MDA medic arrived, I arrived after about 3 minutes and two extra medics came to treat the casualty with devotion.

"We called an ambulance but the ambulance was busy in another case in the settlement and intensive care ambulance was on its way from Beit Shemesh. I asked the volunteer to inform MDA that I ask to send a Helicopter into the air, and so it was.

Eventually a MICU arrived, and due to deterioration of the toddler it was decided to transfer him to the hospital by helicopter. The toddler was loaded on MICU on his way to the helicopter.

"One of the volunteers claimed to have contact with the helicopter and crew will be in Chashmonaim," said the volunteer, "he accompanied the MDA MICU, but eventually announced a change that the crew is in Nili.

"Where is the airstrip? None of the community knew what to say. One resident asked where the airstrip is, said a few years ago a residential neighborhood was built on the airstrip and is gone. We were sent first to the driveway entrance to the community but there were frogs of waste. After a few minutes a jeep arrived which took us to Nili junction to an open area. According to him a helicopter landed here before, and it's probably the airstrip.

"Whilst debating what to do and we will hear a helicopter approaching us. He swirled and tried to find a place but without success.
"Then comes the order to go to Chashmonaim airstrip, and we hit the road again.

"But it turns out that the ways of arrival is not eligible to ride and impossible to reach. Then we receive an order to return to Nili intersection where a helicopter is preparing for landing. We see the helicopter landed, we reported to the MICU which was a minute's drive from the helicopter, but he insisted on continuing the trip to Nili. Only after about 8 minutes he returned to the scene where the helicopter landed."

Eventually the evacuation was delayed about 23 minutes.

MDA reaction to description of the scene was not received yet.

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!