Dear Readers. With the recent tragedies that befell Lakewood over the last couple of weeks, and with the summer months approaching, I felt compelled to share my ideas with you, which perhaps can save the most valuable thing we have. A life. The first thing that enters one’s mind when witnessing an emergency on the road, in our home or wherever else we may be, is, “call Hatzolah”. Baruch Hashem we have an amazing team of dedicated volunteers who go all out at any time of day or night to do whatever they can to save a life as quick as possible.
However, there’s Hatzolah’s department and there’s ours. Our job is to make sure we do whatever possible in our reach to ensure that Hatzolah members can do their job as efficient and quickly as possible.
Talking from experience, and witnessing people stumble with the phone number etc, do you know how much time is wasted from the time an emergency occurs, until a call is placed to Hatzolah? And even when a call is placed, sometimes Hatzolah has a difficult time finding the home.
The first couple of minutes following an emergency are most crucial.
Therefore, I believe there are a few things which schools and parents should educate children with, so we can avoid as many tragedies as possible.
First, every child should know how to dial the Police, Hatzolah, EMS etc when witnessing an emergency. (Speed dial helps too).
Secondly, I think every phone in every home and office, should have some type of note or sticker attached to it with the numbers they first dial in an emergency.
And finally, have well lit home address numbers which are immediately visible from the road. There has been many incidents where Hatzolah has lost precious time due to not being able to read and find a home or office address.
Happy and safe summer to all.
A concerned TLS reader.
Why don’t Lakewood residents dial 911? Isn’t this the fastest method to get help?
ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hatzolahs response time is so much quicker by far
i guess the old scoop is back!! 🙂 nice reader scoop and good points
It should be הצלה׳s responsability too know every road,street,lane etc as an emergency response service
And it should be your responsibility to pay 20 bucks to buy yourself a street address hatzola is a volunteer group they don’t get paid and have zero responsibilities so don’t blame hatzola how dare u do
first of all #4 they do , probably better than you, it is your achrius to make sure that you have a house number and i am proud to say that i purchased one my self and second teach your children the emergency numbers, call hatzolah 24/7
Hatzolah should hold public educational classes on safety s well as basic cpr and heimlich meneuvar
#3 Its not the old scoop he’s not letting the comments critical of hatzolah go through.
Don’t you think a few more members would be beneficial?
Hatzalah should know all streets and number 8 – yup that’s right your just a number and a single digit at that- do you know what a digit is? Because you sound like you would not. If you have a problem with hatzalah its prob got to do with your mommy dropping you one to many times when you were little, I can’t say if it was accidental. Anyhow tls don’t have to censor comments on an article like this because anyone whod have the gumption-(know what that means) to bash hatzalah obviously should be seeing a professional to deal with issues regarding being dropped one to many times.
The last paragraph cant be emphasized enough, make sure your street address is clearly visible from the road.
Second everyone should have CPR training.
Can people please stop being so critical?! Hatzolah isn’t getting paid for what they do! They r totally voluntaring 2 do such a great mitzva. They r doing a very good job! If u x have s/t nice 2 say (or ur just jealous) kindly leave ur wonderful comments some where else where people r interested in what u say! Please be positive and think b4 u write. Thx
Never call 911. In ocean county if you call 911, you first go to a regional dispatch center. From there it gets to the police dept. From there it gets sent to EMS. If you ever need emergency services in Lakewood and you don’t feel like calling Hatzolah call 732-363-0200 and press 0
At least there you will get a local LPD dispatcher
On Friday after sundown, and before sundown on Saturday you should call 9-1-1. I made this comment last week and it was deleted. Not really sure. Many posts have been deleted. If you don’t want controversial posts dont publish stories like the ones you have been posting.
And maybe I missed it, but who is the writer of this article? There is Hatzolah and then there is “ours”. What is “ours”, maybe I missed it.
Hatzolah all the way!! Become a Hatzolah supporter!
My son was choking last shabbos, bh everything was ok. (Hatzala took him to the hospital because the food was stuck in his windpipe) Even though our address is clear on our house, we still sent someone outside to wait to escort the Hatzala in, so they wouldnt have to look an extra second for our house. Before I hung up the phone I heard the sirens!!! (This was during the shabbos seuda…) Amazing timing, Hatzala deserves all the credit, they are unbelievable…
Dear Concerned #14……..Hatzolah is open 24/7, 365 days a year…They have NEVER missed a call or needed Mutual Aid to cover them in 29 years…Why would you tell people not to call between Sundown on Friday until Sundown on Saturday?? ! As a matter of fact, those are the HARDEST times for Lakewood First Aid to cover, as 90 percent of their members are Orthodox Jews!!!You sound ignorant and silly, not to mention dangerous!
Concerned #14, your comments were probably censored last week because they put people’s lives in danger. Orthodox jews do not honor the sabath or the first amendment when a human life is at stake. I really hope nobody takes your comments seriously.
All good points.
But, Hatzolah should also consider taking on more volunteers. There were numerous incidents in and around our neighborhood that b”h did NOT end in tragedy, but COULD have. (And unfortunately there were incidents that did, nebach.)
There are quite a few experienced individuals, yet Hatzolah is not recruiting them. Lakewood has grown exponentially, yet it is widely known that the number of recruits/volunteers has not increased proportionately.
Recently my baby had a choking emergency, b”h it ended well, but the time it took for someone to get to us was nerve-wracking… and if having more volunteers means a quicker response time, why not? (A neighbor of ours has for years been a Hatzolah volunteer in Brooklyn, why isn’t he being recruited to join? We have only one Hatzolah member in our development with more than 250 families!)