A Split Second Decision: How Saving a Stranger Saved His Life

Some stories leave a lasting impression long after they are told.

Daniel’s story is one of them.

The 22 year old from Kiryat Shmona had been completely healthy his entire life. “Maybe once or twice I ever went to a doctor,” he says with a smile. “I never had any medical problems.”

But one ordinary Saturday night changed everything in ways he never could have imagined.

The Gunshots Outside

Daniel, who served as a medic during his service in the Border Police, had just finished Havdalah when he heard loud bangs outside his home.

“At first I thought maybe kids were playing with firecrackers,” he recalls. “But when it continued, I realized it was gunfire.”

Without hesitating, he ran outside.

What he found was a violent dispute between neighbors that had escalated into a shooting. One man lay severely wounded and bleeding heavily.

“From a distance I yelled to the shooter to lower the weapon so I could treat the injured man,” Daniel says. “After a moment, he listened.”

Daniel rushed to the victim and immediately understood the injuries were critical.

Someone handed him a belt so he could improvise a tourniquet while neighbors called for an ambulance.

He worked alone for long minutes trying to save the man’s life.

Without gloves.

A Dangerous Risk

Anyone trained in first aid knows that treating a bleeding patient without protective gloves can expose the responder to dangerous infectious diseases.

Daniel knew that too.

But in that moment, he says, there was no time to think.

“I was completely focused,” he explains. “I knew that if I didn’t help him immediately, he could die in my hands.”

The wounded man eventually survived, largely thanks to the rapid first aid Daniel gave before paramedics arrived.

But the story was only beginning.

“Go to the Hospital Immediately”

A few days later, Daniel remembered the exposure risk and decided to visit his doctor for precautionary blood tests.

He expected reassurance and nothing more.

Instead, the next morning his phone rang with urgent news.

“You need to get to the hospital immediately,” the doctor told him. “Your blood tests came back extremely abnormal.”

Daniel was shocked.

At first he assumed he had contracted an infection from treating the wounded man. But the doctor explained that something entirely different had appeared in the bloodwork.

His creatine phosphokinase, or CPK, levels were dangerously high.

The normal range is approximately 20 to 200.

Daniel’s results showed 40,000.

A Life Threatening Condition

Doctors explained that levels this high can lead to severe kidney damage and even kidney failure if not treated quickly.

The frightening part was that Daniel had almost no symptoms.

“I felt completely healthy,” he says. “There was no reason in the world for me to do blood tests if not for that incident.”

Doctors later told him that in many similar cases, the condition is discovered too late, after irreversible damage has already occurred.

Because the blood tests caught the problem early, Daniel received immediate treatment that likely saved his kidneys and possibly his life.

“It Was Open Providence”

Daniel spent Shabbat and several more days in the hospital receiving treatment until his enzyme levels finally dropped.

Today, he says he has fully recovered.

“I’m healthy, baruch Hashem,” he says. “I only need occasional blood tests now. No medications, nothing.”

Looking back, Daniel sees the entire chain of events differently.

“If I hadn’t gone outside to help that man, I probably never would have done those tests,” he says emotionally. “And by the time this was discovered, I could have ended up on dialysis.”

After leaving the hospital, Daniel asked his rabbi whether he should recite Birkat HaGomel. The rabbi ruled that instead, he should make a large seudat hoda’ah, a meal of thanksgiving, and publicize the miracle that happened to him.

“Not everyone gets to see such clear providence,” Daniel says. “But I did.”