Teen Volunteer Aids Critically Injured After Northern Border Explosion

A 15-year-old Magen David Adom youth volunteer, Yair Frankenthal, recounted his experience assisting fellow students injured in an unexploded ordnance blast near the northern border. Despite sustaining minor injuries himself from shrapnel to his leg and shoulder, Frankenthal prioritized helping others, guiding a friend of his younger brother on how to provide care so he could attend to more severely wounded individuals. He described finding one boy without a pulse or breathing and performing CPR until emergency services arrived. Frankenthal, who is expected to be released from the hospital the same day, expressed relief at his recovery.

David Radko, a volunteer paramedic with Magen David Adom and a teacher, also described the chaotic scene following the incident, which resulted in the death of ninth-grader Yair Wilensky. Radko, who was the first responder on the scene, began triaging and treating the wounded. He noted the remarkable cooperation of the injured teenagers, who assisted each other despite the severe injuries and difficult conditions. Some students even applied tourniquets to stop bleeding.

Radko, a 29-year-old resident of Kiryat Shmona, was dispatched to the scene after returning from work. He navigated challenging terrain to reach the casualties, describing the sight of injured students scattered along the path, some tending to their friends. As a high school teacher himself, Radko found the event particularly affecting, empathizing with the students and the teachers who were present on the trip. He maintained communication with MDA dispatch throughout, coordinating the arrival of additional teams while continuing to provide medical aid. Radko praised the students for their responsiveness to his instructions, highlighting their efforts to help each other in the complex and distressing situation.