Photo from Wikimedia Commons. United Hatzalah CEO Eli Beer landed in Israel on April 21 after spending over a month in Florida battling COVID-19.
Video can be seen of Beer arriving in Israel to applause as he was reunited with his family:
However, Beer is unable to stay with his family for the time being because his family lives on the fourth floor of a building that has no elevator and he’s still too weak from the virus to use the stairs, according to Yeshiva World News. He is currently residing at a friend’s apartment in Tel Aviv.
Beer was hospitalized in Florida on March 18 after developing COVID-19 symptoms and was in a coma from March 22 to April 10. He attended a Purim event in Miami as part of a fundraising trip for United Hatzalah. He told The Jerusalem Post on April 22 that his COVID-19 symptoms started with a sore throat, prompting a doctor to initially diagnose him with strep throat. Beer was hospitalized when he had difficulty breathing.
Beer said that when he was intubated and put under sedation, he “was sure I was not waking up.” After Beer woke up, he said that the ensuing days were an “an extremely hard, emotional journey.” The medication used to help him recover from the virus caused him to hallucinate that the doctors were trying to kill him; he was unaware that Passover was over.
Beer told Yeshiva World News on April 20 before boarded the plane back to Israel, “I fought for my life for several weeks. Now I’m returning to Israel to continue saving lives.”
United Hatzalah Director-General Eli Pollak told the organization’s volunteers on April 20, “God is rejoicing today. Thank you for the prayers, hopes, life-saving work and good deeds.”
United Hatzalah is a Jerusalem-based, free, volunteer-staffed emergency medical service.
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