Last update - 02:14 28/05/2007
Paramedic treats dying friend in a 'very cruel coincidence'
By Yuval Azoulay
Twelve hours after meeting up with an old friend at a reunion of the Sea Scouts in Jaffa, Magen David Adom emergency services paramedic Avi Teiger ended up treating him for critical injuries after a Qassam rocket attack yesterday on Sderot.
The friend, Oshri Oz of Hod Hasharon, died of his wounds a short time later.
Teiger thought he had already seen it all in Sderot, where he's been working as a paramedic for years. He is usually among the first to arrive at the scene of a rocket attack, and yesterday was no exception.
When Teiger saw Oz bleeding in the street, he didn't recognize him at first as the same person he had just seen smiling the day before.
"His face was covered in blood," said Teiger. "The bleeding was uncontrollable. At first I didn't recognize him. We made every effort to stabilize his condition and transferred him to the hospital."
Teiger first realized something familiar about Oz - who is survived by his wife, who is eight months pregnant, and their daughter - when he looked into Oz's eyes, but he didn't actually make the connection until later.
"During the evacuation [to the hospital], I looked him in the eyes," said Teiger. "His blue eyes were familiar to me and I wondered why."
It was only after Oz's death that Teiger, who used to be a leader in the group, realized the identity of the man he had tried to save. "It's a very cruel coincidence," he said.