MARCH 16 • 2023 | 17

OUR COMMUNITY
so expensive because they’re 
essentially mini-hospitals on 
wheels,” Soloff said.
For the second ambulance, 
Soloff is hoping the commu-
nity will pitch in. “Hatzalah 
is moving forward now, and 
I want people to understand 
they can be a part of it,” he 
said.
The goal is to start trans-
porting patients to the hospi-
tal in November, and Hatzalah 
will have the two-ambulance 
minimum it needs to make 
that happen. “But relying 
on the used ambulance isn’t 
ideal,” Soloff said. 
The overall project cost of 
providing transport is roughly 
$900,000, which includes the 
training costs of additional 
EMTs and equipping them 
each, which is roughly $3,000-
$4,000 per person. 
Currently, Hatzalah has 15 
volunteer EMTs and is train-
ing an additional 13. The goal 
is to be at 20 before November 
to handle the influx.
The organization also has 22 
volunteer dispatchers, mostly 
women, who are under the 
leadership of EMT/Dispatch 
Coordinator Yitzchak 
Goldstein. Volunteer dispatch-
ers switch shifts every three 
hours, and they must stay by 
their phones. They send the 
call’s address and details to 
the nearest responder (they 
are divided by zones) who is 
equipped with a “jump bag” 
trauma kit that includes all the 
supplies needed to save lives, 
including an oxygen kit and 
an AED defibrillator.
“I make sure the protocols 
are followed, the dispatch text 
goes to the right people, and I 
provide weekly and monthly 
training to keep everything 
fresh in the dispatchers’ 
minds,” Goldstein said.

MAKING AN IMPACT
Annual calls have more than 
doubled since its first year in 

operation, according to Soloff. 
In 2022, Hatzalah responded 
to 387 calls, everything from 
simple lacerations to cardiac 
arrests. 
Volunteer EMTS are avail-
able 24 hours a day, seven days 
a week to respond to emergen-
cies, although special arrange-
ments are made on Shabbat to 
return vehicles and equipment 
to where they need to be once 
the emergency is over. 
“
As long as there’s an emer-
gency that we’re going toward, 
we can do whatever we need 
to do to help that person or 
to get to that scene, even if 
it means doing things we 
normally are not allowed to 
do on Shabbos,” Soloff said. 
“But once the call is over, well, 
now we’re stuck. So we pay a 
non-Jewish person on a week-
ly basis to help us get our cars 
and equipment back to where 
they need to be so we’re ready 
for the next call.” 
And EMTs are always ready 
to jump when that next call 
comes in. “There are times 

when I’m sitting in a meeting 
at work and tone goes off,” 
said volunteer EMT Moshe 
Davis, who is director of oper-
ations for a title company. “I 
just leave in the middle of the 
meeting, and everyone I’m 
with knows I’m going to help 
someone. 
“We all have our regular 
lives — our jobs, our families, 
our shuls,” Davis added. “But 
when that radio goes off, that 
all goes to the side.”
Sometimes those calls are 
a matter of life and death. 
“
Although we haven’t delivered 
any babies yet, there have been 
a few calls we’ve had where 
the baby was born before we 
got there, so I think it’s just a 
matter of time,” said volunteer 
Hatzalah paramedic Asher 
Sigler, whose day job is direc-
tor of a lab. 
Davis added that they’ve 
also responded to calls where 
the patient has been clinically 
dead. “There’s a man walking 
around the community now 
who is enjoying his kids and 

grandkids who had collapsed 
in cardiac arrest. He was 
basically dead. And now he’s 
walking around with no after-
effects,” he said. “
A large part 
of the reason why is that we 
were there in record time — 
less than two minutes until we 
were at the front door.”
Sigler said Hatzalah not 
only brings familiarity to 
people — who, because of 
cultural and language barriers 
or because they are Holocaust 
survivors, are uncomfortable 
dealing with outsiders — it 
also brings peace of mind.
“When you’re having an 
emergency, the anxiety of 
waiting for help to arrive is 
almost unbearable. Because 
we can get there so quickly, 
people calm down sooner,” 
Sigler said.

MID-TERM GOAL: 
ADVANCED LIFE 
SUPPORT/NEW HQ
Another goal of Hatzalah 
MI is to begin providing 
Advanced Life Support, hope-
fully in the 2025/2026 time-
frame, according to Soloff. 
Currently, Hatzalah provides 
only Basic Life Support (BLS). 
To become licensed to do that, 
Hatzalah would need to have 
more volunteer paramedics. 
Currently, they have three, 
including Soloff and Sigler.
According to Sigler, “When 
it comes to responding to 
emergencies, 100% of calls 
begin with Basic Life Support. 
Now, Hatzalah runs BLS, and 
paramedics are heading to us 
from Alliance or Southfield 
Fire so there’s no gap in 
time,” he said. “Even when we 
advance to be able to provide 
Advanced Life Support, our 
EMTs are still going to arrive 
on scene first, followed by 
paramedics.”
So, what’s the difference 
between an EMT and a para-
medic?

Chaim Cohen of Oak 
Park and Asher Sigler of 
Southfield practice their 
CPR technique.

continued on page 18

