Israeli cleaner saves life using knowledge gleaned on the job

Dec 28, 2011, 10:35 GMT

Tel Aviv - A cleaner at an Israeli health clinic saved the life of a worker by diagnosing the onset of a heart attack - using knowledge she had gleaned from observing and listening to doctors and nurses talk while she went about her daily duties for 30 years.

The Yediot Ahronot daily reported Wednesday that Masudi Ben-Hemo became alarmed two weeks ago, when she noticed that Aharon Lugasi, who was carrying out menial tasks at the clinic in Nahariya, northern Israel, was sweating and looking pale and shaky.

Undeterred by Lugasi's insistence that everything was fine, she would not let him leave and insisted repeatedly that he go at once for an electrocardiogram, recording heart activity.

Lugasi eventually gave in and, still at the clinic, suffered a heart attack and collapsed. He was given emergency first aid by a doctor, and rushed to a hospital for full treatment.

'Luckily she (Ben-Hemo) saw what was happening to me before I understood. In the end, I was persuaded to enter the clinic.' Lugasi said. 'I have no words enough to thank her.'

Ben-Hemo, a mother of four and grandmother of seven, said that while going about her cleaning duties at the clinic, 'I listen to conversations between the doctors and nurses.'

'I also love watching health shows on television, so I'm pretty clued-up on medical knowledge,' she added.