Israeli Rescue Service Holds Public Sea Rescue Simulation

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Due to recent tragic cases of drowning – at sea or in swimming pools – the Israeli MDA (Magen David Adom, an Israeli emergency medical service) conducted a special public training session, including a complete drowning simulation, at the Sironit Beach in Netanya.

MDA officials decided to educate beach-goers in first aid techniques in case of drowning, in addition to generally improving safety awareness. MDA medical teams arrived at the Sironit Beach and conducted a mock rescue of a drowning person. The officials addressed the crowd in Hebrew and French, due to the popularity of Netanya among Frech tourists. In order to familiarize the public with the MDA fleet of vehicles the organizations displayed a few of them during the event: Medical emergency vehicle, beach ambulance, normal ambulance, difficult terrain “jeepbulance”, rescue motorcycle and others.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

Activities were conducted in cooperation with the Netanya municipality. The local lifeguards took part as well, using their jet skis to simulate rescuing a drowning swimmer. After the swimmer was brought to shore the medical team showed the crowd how to properly conduct CPR.

MDA CEO Eli Bin said: “We receive drowning emergency calls during almost every shift, at beaches and swimming pools. The Sironit Beach activity was conducted in order to familiarize the public with the subject and to help save lives… [public training sessions are an] important life-saving tool.”