The Rhode Island Community has made a life-saving gesture that has already saved its first life.

The Pediatric Emergency Department of Ha'Emek Medical Center was the recipient of a new defibrillator that was generously donated by the Jewish Federation of Rhode Island within the framework of the Partnership 2000 program. The deepening relations between the Rhode Island community and Ha'Emek Medical Center has had much to do with the loving intervention of Ellie Elbaum.

As fate would have it, an elderly gentleman was admitted to the adult Cardiology Department with a serious problem of a dangerously irregular heartbeat. Attempts to stabilize his condition were unsuccessful with the older defibrillator in use in that department. Doctors borrowed the new defibrillator form Pediatric Emergency and thanks to its advanced technology and capabilities the patient's heartbeat was stabilized and his life was saved.

It's acts such as these that bond our people regardless of the miles between us.

  Tishrei 5762 - September 2001