Two weeks ago, a driver with an expired license crashed his vehicle into Khaled Reshek, a seasoned United Hatzalah volunteer EMT from East Jerusalem who was riding his ambucycle on Route 1 at the time. He sustained serious injuries. Despite the long rehabilitation the doctors are predicting, Reshek already longs to return and “save more lives.”
“I couldn’t have imagined how hard it is. I used to treat people and now I am the one being treated. Only now do I understand what the people I have treated, really went through,” said Reshek while confined to a hospital bed. Reshek’s colleagues from United Hatzalah who specialize in emergency medical treatment, are the ones who responded to the accident and treated their friend.
Describing his activity as a first responder before his injury, Reshek said, “I was at all the most difficult events in the city. I responded to many difficult terrorist attacks and hundreds of car accidents”.
Reshek lives in east Jerusalem and works at the YMCA near the old city. He longs to return to volunteering soon despite his physical condition. “I’m in a difficult situation. My whole body is broken. I have two fractures in my spine, a fractured elbow, broken ribs and difficulty breathing.”
The doctors predict a long rehabilitation procedure for him and said that his return to volunteering will not be happening so soon. But nevertheless, Reshek stayed determined when he proclaimed: “Within a month I will be back treating people and saving lives.”
On Thursday Reshek underwent another series of surgeries. He is visited often by his family and many other volunteers from United Hatzalah.
