By M.K. Joram Heilbronner went missing.

He was on a month-long vacation trip in Europe that started with celebrating his former employers’ 25th anniversary party in Athens, Greece.

Joram is a resident of Toms River, NJ, and is the president of Congregation Ahavat Olam Shul in Howell, NJ, where Rabbi David Amar is the Rabbi.

Joram left Athens for Munich, Germany where he planned to stay for a few days and then continue to Switzerland, and then back home to the States.

Shortly after landing in Munich, Joram lost contact with ones he was constantly in touch with, including Rabbi Amar. For two days, no one heard from Joram. Rabbi Amar was concerned as to why he hasn’t been able to reach Joram at all.

Unbeknownst to all, Joram developed a serious Medical episode due to his previous medical condition and ended up at a hospital ER in Nürnberg Germany where he was immediately admitted to the ICU. Still, no one from his family and friends had heard anything from him since.

Rabbi Amar, along with Joram’s brother, filed a missing person’s report, but to no avail.

Upon hearing about the situation, many askanim and community activists got involved and created a wide network of people to assist Rabbi Amar in finding Joram.

This network included Rabbi Abe Fried, Toms River Police Chaplain, Rabbi Mendy Carlbach, Port Authority Police Chaplain, Rabbi Moshe Gourarie Chabad Jewish Center of Toms River, Mr. Shmuel Marlowitz of Antwerp Hatzolah, and many others.

The askanim – led by Rabbi Amar and Mr. Markowitz along with many Chabad sheluchim from Germany and Congressmen Chris Smith and Tom MacArthur – worked tirelessly for weeks, contacting Interpol Police, the German Consulate, the National Missing Persons database and others to try and exhaust every angle possible to locate Joram.

Finally, Joram was found at a hospital in Munich and was told to be under care but in serious condition. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

But not for long.

It was decided that Joram needs to return to the States as soon as possible for better care and treatment. It was suggested that they reach out to Isaac Lieder from VitalOne Air Medical Transport to transfer Joram back to the states.

Within 48 hours of being contacted, Isaac and his team had arranged all the logistics for the cross-country transport.

Just a few hours after being notified, Yanky Fekete, VitalOne Chief of Staff and RN, and Abe Schwartz flight paramedic were on a flight to Germany.
There, they met an ICU physician who was going to accompany them on the transport via air ambulance.

All along the flight, the Medical team was actively treating the patient with various medical needs.

As Yanky Fekete describes, it was an ‘All hands-on deck’ air medical transport.

After landing in Teterboro airport in NJ, Isaac Leider-VitalOne founder and CEO awaited the medical jet with the ambulance of Lakewood Hatzolah and two of their volunteers. Yanky and Abe continued care and headed to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, where the patient was admitted to the ICU.

At the hospital, Rabbi Amar was awaiting Joram and was amazed to see firsthand the great work of the VitalOne team and thanked them in the name of all the congregants.

“Joram is now back near family and is recovering, thanks to the many involved who made this mission successful,” said a VitalOne member. “A continued prayer for a full recovery is wished upon Joram. Please continue to be Mispallel for Shimon ben Ya’al. May he have a compete Refuah Shleima.”