Teen MDA volunteer treated wounded at Ramim Ridge blast

A day after the explosion on Ramim Ridge, Yair Frankenthal, an MDA youth volunteer, describes the moments of terror.

On Monday, shortly before 3:00 PM, a shell exploded near students from Maalot Yeshiva High School who were on a trip to Ramim Ridge.

Yair Frankenthal, 15, a resident of Maalot who was lightly wounded, volunteers with MDA youth as a first responder. "After the huge explosion I heard, I felt that I was wounded, but I immediately started checking who needed medical help so I could assist with the knowledge I gained in the first-aid course I took as an MDA youth volunteer," he recounted.

"The other boys called MDA's emergency hotline and I began providing medical treatment to one of the boys who was very seriously wounded. I noticed he had no pulse and wasn't breathing, so I performed CPR on him until the MDA responder arrived."

"My younger brother, who was also on the trip, was wounded by shrapnel and I went to check his condition. A friend of his who was beside him helped stop the bleeding, and I instructed him how to act so I could move on to help those more seriously wounded. Baruch Hashem I was lightly wounded by two pieces of shrapnel that penetrated my leg and shoulder. I feel good and I'm happy I'm being released home today already."

Yair Frankenthal describes the shell explosion (MDA spokesperson)

The first to arrive at the scene was a rapid-response volunteer on a motorcycle, David Radko, 29, an emergency medical paramedic with MDA from Kiryat Shmona. "When I was returning from work, MDA's 101 emergency hotline dispatched me to the incident and I immediately headed in that direction. The route to the wounded was complicated in terms of terrain conditions, but I did everything I could to arrive quickly."

"From the first glance, this looked like a very difficult scene. The wounded were scattered along the route, some were holding their wounded friends and trying to help them. Further along the route I saw the more seriously wounded," David recalled, adding, "This case sits with me on a pretty sensitive point. I myself work as an educator in a tenth-grade high school, and arriving at an incident like this makes you think about the wounded boys as if you were their teacher, and of course I unconsciously immediately put myself in the shoes of the teachers who were on this trip."

Radko was in constant contact with MDA's emergency hotline throughout and helped additional teams reach the location while simultaneously providing medical treatment to the wounded. "I immediately began triaging the casualties and stopping their bleeding. Despite the difficult sights and distress, the boys cooperated with me in an exceptional manner."

"Each one tried to help his friend as much as he could. There were some who even applied tourniquets to their friends to stop the bleeding. I gave them instructions on how to help, and they listened and acted accordingly. This was a very difficult and complex scene, and it's not easy to see children wounded in such a state. We did everything we could to give them the best treatment," he said.