There are Hatzalah volunteers in every area of the Catskills, and when there is a medical emergency, a dispatcher will call on the volunteers closest to the scene and ask them to respond. Last summer, a dispatcher erred and called Hatzalah members from a different location.
Two volunteers were closer to the site of the emergency, but for some reason, the dispatcher sent the members who were twenty minutes away. Baruch Hashem, despite his error, the person in need was treated in time, and nothing serious happened.
Nevertheless, when the dispatcher realized his mistake, his conscious rebuked him harshly. He realized that this time he was lucky, and no one was hurt, but it could have ended differently, r'l.
The two Hatzalah members who were closer to the emergency heard the call on their radio and felt betrayed. "We are closer to the scene; why didn't the dispatcher call us? Does he think we aren't capable and professional?"
So, three people were disappointed. The dispatcher was upset that he made this error, and the yungerleit felt slighted and disrespected, but it was for everyone's good, as we will see.
This is what occurred: The two yungerleit figured that if they weren't called, for whatever reason, they don't have to go to the emergency. So, instead, they went to the beis medresh. Suddenly, a woman entered the beis medresh with an infant in her hands, shouting that her child had stopped breathing.
The two yungerleit worked on the infant child for a long time, and b”H saved his life. Now it was understood why it was arranged from heaven that they be in the beis medresh (and not at the other call). The other emergency could wait twenty minutes, but every moment is critical when an infant stops breathing. The lesson is that when you think something went wrong, it isn't so. Hashem plans and arranges everything precisely as it should be.
Reprinted from the Parshas Eikev 5783 email of Torah Wellsprings: The Collected Thoughts of Rabbi Elimelech Biderman.
