Who Is Bravo?

You probably know that Bravo has been providing fast,professional emergency and medical care to Bay Ridge and DykerHeights since 1974. But do you know the volunteers who respond toalmost 300 calls each month?

Yitzchok Friedman was born in 1973 and raised in Williamsburg.He moved to Borough Park when he married his wife, Chavie, whom hecalls the most wonderful person in the world. Yitzy and Chaviehave three girls, ages five, 10 and 12, and were recently blessedwith a little baby boy.

Yitzy graduated from yeshiva, attended college and has completedextensive training in computers. He is currently a GIS Analyst forthe City of New York Department of Information Technology &Telecommunication.

He joined BRAVO in December, 2009, because he is the kind ofperson that likes to help out other people whenever possible. Healways wanted to become an emergency medical technician andcompleted his certification a few years ago. While looking for aplace where he could get some experience, BRAVO was suggested. Hedid some research, and found that BRAVO is a great organizationthat welcomes everyone to its ranks, is a great place to get somereal experience and have some fun while helping out people inneed. That is exactly what Yitzy was looking for.

In the short time that Yitzchok has been at BRAVO, he hasalready volunteered over 300 hours and responded to many emergencycalls. No tour however will come close to the one he worked thenight of the Christmas blizzard.

I went in to do the eight to midnight tour with VinnyMacFalter, Chris Catalano and Rich Chan, Yitzy recalled. About8:30 p.m. a call came in for an elderly female. As soon as we leftin the ambulance, we knew that this was going to be a long one. Thesnow was already about a foot high. Since the block that weresponded to was right off the water, the snow drift was so badthat we couldn’t even pull up to the building. We had to leave theambulance down the block. The patient had to go to the hospitalwith no way to use a stair chair or stretcher because of thehip-high snow and blizzard conditions.

With no way of discerning the stairs outside of the building,we had to figure out a way to get the patient into the ambulance,Yitzy went on. We packaged the patient up on a backboard andblankets. Getting into the ambulance was treacherous, but wefinally got her in. We started out, but the ambulance quickly gotstuck and there was no way to move forward. We tried backing out,but there was a pickup truck stuck behind the ambulance. I stayedwith the patient while the rest of the crew got out to help thattruck out of the way.

Meanwhile, the snow was coming down hard and fast, and theambulance got completely stuck in the snow, he continued. Wecalled for backup and after a while they arrived to take thepatient to the hospital. By now, it was already 11 p.m. tomidnight. We did not know how to get the ambulance back to base. Wecalled everyone possible. We even called 911 twice but, with nohelp coming, we were on our own. Around 3 a.m., we decided to tryto make it back to base on foot. With three to four feet of snowand blizzard conditions, it was hard to walk and even breathe. Wefinally made it back to base around 6 a.m.

Yitzy encourages anyone to join BRAVO and adds, If you wantjoin an organization where you can help out people, have fun at thesame time, and be in the company of great people, join the BRAVOfamily.

Thank you, Yitzchok, for your service to our organization andcommunity, and good luck in your future endeavors.

I can be reached anytime at 718-630-8601, or, if it isurgent,

can be reached a4 718-344-5646. Thank you.