Roundup

Kol Nidre Heroes

Temple Israel congregants save a life on the holiest night of the year.

Robin Schwartz

Special to the Jewish News

T

he solemn night of contempla-
tion that is Kol Nidre included a
life-and-death emergency during
a late evening prayer service at Temple
Israel in West Bloomfield.
Congregants were getting settled in
their seats for the 9 p.m. service on Sept.
17 and the rabbi and cantor were about
to begin when Benjamin Barish, 85, a
dual resident of Farmington Hills and Tel
Aviv, suffered a sudden heart attack and
slumped over in his chair.
His wife, Bruria, and only son, Dan
Barish of West Bloomfield, looked over
in shock and disbelief. Witnesses heard
Dan shout, "Abba, don't leave me!" and
"Someone call 911!" Sitting one seat over
was a complete stranger, Dr. Carrie Leff,
35, of Bloomfield Township. The wife and
mother of two young children is trained
to save lives.
"He wasn't breathing; he had no pulse;
he was dead:' Leff recalls. "His heart had
stopped in this most sacred of places on
this most holy of nights, right next to his
family just as he was to be inscribed in
the Book of Life."
Leff, one of five doctors with Novi
Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, says
her instincts and medical training took
over. She immediately began mouth-to-
mouth resuscitation and CPR.
"He lay across the chairs where we
were seated. I bent down and began to
breathe for him:' she wrote in her online
blog (www.thedoctormom.com ). "Then
I started chest compressions to circulate
the blood that needed to get to his brain
quickly."
Four other doctors — Marc Weisman,
Dan Cohen and Sanford Rautbort, all
of West Bloomfield, and Brian Kern, an
emergency room physician from Royal
Oak — rushed over to help. Benjamin
Barish was carried out to the hallway
where they continued CPR.
In the midst of the commotion, Temple
Israel Executive Director David Tisdale
of West Bloomfield had the presence of
mind to grab the synagogue's automated
external defibrillator (AED). The small,
portable device is designed to deliver
an electric shock and restore the heart's
natural rhythm. It had never been used

8

September 30 • 2010

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before, but was in good working order.
"Dr. Kern hooked it up and [Barish]
actually came back with just one shock:'
Leff said. "He started breathing on his
own and his pulse came back. His eyes
opened. He'd been dead for four minutes.
It seemed like an eternity"

Right Place, Right Time
By all accounts, Benjamin Barish is not
your typical elderly patient; and by all
accounts he was in the right place at the
right time.
The longtime patent attorney still
maintains a regular work schedule. He's
on staff at Ehrlick & Fenster in Ramat
Gan, Israel, handling "the preparation
and prosecution of patent applications
in Israel, the U.S. and most countries
throughout the world," according to the
company's website. He also holds several
patents; he applied for one earlier this
year for a multi-action toy water gun
and variable-fluid discharge devices.
Barish and his wife spend six months
out of the year in Israel and six months
in Michigan, near their son, daughter-
in-law Mary and two grandchildren
Natali, 13, and Gabriel, 9.
"He's a brilliant person:' Dan Barish
said about his father. "He has degrees
in law, chemistry and engineering. He's
also a good, giving person who many
people admire. My dad is my idol and my
hero."
After Benjamin Barish was rushed
to the hospital, doctors discovered the
heart attack was caused by an 80-percent
blockage in one of his arteries. He had
no previous history of heart problems.
Family members say he did not experi-
ence chest pains and there were no other
warning signs. A stent was used to open

the blocked artery and he was released
after about a week in the hospital.
"This is just unreal; it's a miracle," Dan
said. "My parents were supposed to go
to the 7 p.m. service and I was supposed
to go to the 9 o'clock, but we all went
together. If he was at home or in the car
when this happened, he wouldn't have
made it. Everything happened for a rea-
son. You could not have asked to be at a
better place at a better time."
Leff also believes her involvement
was beshert (Yiddish for "meant to be").
Her family was running late that night,
which is why she ended up in the row of
seats toward the back of the sanctuary.
She later learned Benjamin Barish is the
uncle of one of her former partners.
Leff has wrestled with the concept of
being called a "hero." Here's more of what
she wrote in her blog where some Barish
family members and friends have posted
comments and expressed their gratitude
from as far away as Israel.
"Good or bad, as a doctor, my job never
ends. It is a constant responsibility, as it
should be. I consider what I did to be an
extension of that job, my duty to put my
knowledge and education to use when
someone needs it most. Not a hero; just
lucky. Right place, right time. Able and
willing to help along with many others
who put forth great effort to make a dif-
ference."

Divine Intervention?
Following what she calls a "Kol Nidre
to remember," Leff returned to services
and tried to process what had just taken
place. The rabbi made an announce-
ment letting people know the man
who'd been carried out of the sanctuary
was on the road to recovery.

While she doesn't consider herself reli-
gious or spiritual, Leff says the passages
and prayers she heard after the rescue
that night carried a deeper meaning.
She said, "One passage read, 'Great
is the eternal power at the heart of life;
mighty the love that is stronger than
death. Faithful love gives life to all, the
acts of grace restore our strength.' It was
hard to hear those words and not feel as
though they were being spoken directly
to those of us who helped bring this
man back to life.
"Was there some divine intervention
that put me in this place? Was this night
not supposed to be his last? Could his
family's blessings of love save this man
from death?"

Time To Reflect
Leff took the time to visit the elder
Barish in the hospital and has spoken
with his son.
After the close call, Dan Barish is a bit
philosophical, too. He plans to donate
another defibrillator to the temple as a
token of his family's appreciation.
"My dad remembers asking me for
the synagogue tickets a tenth of a sec-
ond before he was gone he said. "It was
like the gates opened up and then shut
on him. I think God said, 'We don't need
you right now.'"
For David Tisdale, witnessing the
ordeal during the Days of Awe left him
in awe of the talented, dedicated profes-
sionals who sprang into action.
"They were amazing; to watch them
work on this man was amazing:' he said.
"If they hadn't worked as hard as
they did, and we didn't have a defi-
brillator [which was there thanks to
funding from the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit], he would not
have survived. He was fortunate and
we were fortunate; he was lucky and
we were lucky. And God was definitely
watching."

❑

Learn CPR!

Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak
offers CPR training and AED
certification classes for $30-$50
per person. To register, call 1-800-
633-7377.