By: Shoshana Bernstein

On Monday Evening, Erev Yom Kippur, a family vacation turned suddenly tragic for an Israeli�family vacationing in the country of Georgia. Two children were tragically killed and two other�members of the same family were seriously injured when their car plunged into a gorge in the�remote mountainous of the Tusheti region in the northeast of Georgia. The crash site was�extremely difficult to access and it took rescue workers three hours to rescue the injured family�members.

Eyal Zehavi, a Magen David Adom paramedic and a friend of Ohad Porat, also a MDA�paramedic & brother to Noar, wife who was injured, called every medical Transport Agency in�Israel and Europe to no avail. He was told nothing will happen until after Yom Kippur. A�veteran paramedic, CEO of the Emergency Medical Center in Efrat and supervisor of the MDA�Hazmat response team, Eyal understood quite well that the medical situation was dire. This�transport was nothing short of pikuach nefesh. Having worked with VitalOne on a previous�transport, he reached out to Isaac Lieder. �Impossible�, was the answer they kept receiving�when inquiring with other agencies, but with VitalOne, when lives hang in the balance, the�impossible is made possible.

The first call came in to VitalOne at 9:04 am on Tuesday morning New York time, from Eyal Zahavi with�an urgent request to transfer the injured back to Israel to ensure they could receive lifesaving medical�attention. Having done a similarly timed transport just two years ago�(http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking- stories/345214/vitalone-defies- the-odds-�with-last- minute-transport.html), Isaac immediately realized the myriad challenges he was facing: all of�Israel, including the airports close at 2:00 pm on Tuesday for the Nationally observed High Holy day of�Yom Kippur. It was now 4:03 pm in Israel.

Isaac was undeterred. Wasting no time, he reached out to his high level contacts in Israel�including well placed individuals within the Civil Aviation Authority, Israel Airports Authority,�Ministry of Transport, Prime Minister�s Office, and Israeli Foreign Ministry Situation Room. Lead�Pilot, Captain Imri Ozer stated �I got a few calls regarding the situation, however Isaac from�VitalOne gave the green light to make the impossible happen�. Permission was granted for a�plane to depart from Tel Aviv�s Ben Gurion airport which required one thousand Gallons of jet�(or 6700 Lbs. of jet fuel).

What followed was an incredible flurry of joint effort and activity to save lives. Aggressive�phone calls were needed to convince the fuel company manager himself to come down to the�airport and fuel the jet personally earmarked for takeoff to Georgia.

While these complicated aviation arrangements were being made, Isaac was busy assembling a�tactical medical team consisting of:

Dr. Ami Mayo, Director, Surgical Critical Care General & Trauma surgery Rambam Health Care�Campus, Haifa Level 1 Trauma Center, Major (Res) Special Operation Flight Surgeon, Israel Air�Force, Airborne Rescue and Evacuation Unit 669

and

Dr. Josh Schroeder, orthopedic surgeon Hadassah Hospital Jerusalem, Level 1 Trauma Center, as�well as Chagai Bar-Tov MDA Tactical Flight Paramedic to join the flight.

The VitalOne Contracted Medical Aircraft departed from an otherwise desolate Ben Gurion�Airport on Tuesday evening at 9:58 pm, heading to Tbilisi, Georgia. The moment the plane�touched down in Tbilisi, the medical team headed directly to the hospital personally escorted�by Bar Segal, Head of Security for the Embassy of Israel in Georgia. Four and a half hours of life�saving measures were needed in order to stabilize the injured for the flight.

Yom Kipper morning dawned and by 6:00 am the VitalOne flight was once again airborne. On�the wings of tefillos being murmured the world over, and thanks to the expert administrations�of the VitalOne medical team, the plane landed at Ben Gurion airport at 8:15 am Yom Kippur�Day. The only other people there were the three Magen David Adom ambulances standing by�to transport the patients to Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem with MDA ambulances�calling in 2 Critical Trauma notifications where multiple surgical teams were waiting to save�their lives.

�Isaac does what no one else can. He is mamash amazing,� shares Eyal, who was reached in�Israel. �He was able to gather the very best in every field and make this transport happen. No�one else could do it.�

Ohad, whose sister and nephew are undergoing surgery while the family plans for a heart�wrenching double funeral, was on the phone with Eyal. �I am very emotional. I just got back�from Georgia. All the medical personnel were truly amazing. Thank you so much, VitalOne�Team! Your help made the difference between life and death.�

Thanks to Isaac Leider and the VitalOne air medical transport team, members of the Grinfeld�family survived the impossible. In addition, VitalOne went the extra mile, made one phone call�to a well-known philanthropist to cover the costs of the air medical transport.

Please daven for a complete refuah shelaima for:

Noar Rachel bat Martha

Yiftach Mordechai ben Noar Rachel