Kaplan hospital nurses save man who tries to commit suicide at the entrance to Rehovot's Herzl Street

A nurse at Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot used her sweater as a tourniquet to stop the profuse bleeding of a man whose foot was amputated by a railroad train when he ran towards the tracks in a suicide attempt.

A few days ago, Tami Shlomo, a pediatric nurse who was driving to Sheba Medical Center with two other nurses, was waiting for a train to pass at the exit from Rehovot. They saw a man rushing towards the train and get run over by one of the railway cars. The nurses ran out of the car to help the man, who was bleeding profusely but lay there quietly.

"It was incredible to see a man with an amputated food who didn't say anything or scream," said Shlomo. He even answered our questions about how he felt. We did all we could to keep him awake so he wouldn't lose consciousness before the ambulance arrived."

The pediatric nurse said the event was very traumatic for her, even though she was a medic in the IDF and knew what to do. After seeing the man's condition, she shouted for an elastic band, but no one had any, so he used her sweater to try to stop the bleeding.

The Magen David Adom ambulance evacuated the man to Kaplan for continued treatment, and he was admitted in stable condition. "I am proud of my hospital," said Shlomo, "and I knew he would get the best care to save his life. I called the department where he was hospitalize to check on his condition. When I heard that he was okay and that his relatives [had seen] him, I calmed down."

The three nurses will receive special recognition for their efforts from the hospital management for working quickly and properly to save a man's life.

Source: Siegel-Itzkovich J. Kaplan nurses save man who tries to commit suicide (2 Nov 2008) [FullText]