An amateur basketball tournament of the workers’ committees in Bulgaria ended in tragedy, after one of the Clal insurance company employees, the late Oren Barzilai, collapsed during the game and according to his co-workers there was apparently no doctor, paramedic or medical equipment like a defibrillator that could save his life.
Following the death of the late Oren Barzilai from Doom Lev, Chairman of the Clal Insurance Workers’ Committee, Roni RazDemands the suspension of the Hapoel Center staff responsible for the default and now tells in an interview with ONE about what happened in the dramatic moments in the city of Varna.
“Two weeks ago, the tournament started in Varna. Every two or three years, we go to a tournament abroad organized by the Hapoel Center. They are the ones who register us and arrange everything. We registered about 50 employees for the Sportiada, with employees coming to play basketball, football, basketball and tennis. We arrived in Varna and on Friday morning the games started on the basketball court. Before us, the staff of Soroka Hospital played against the Bulgarians. Our team went up, the game started and after five minutes the coach put in Oren who replaced another player. “A minute and a half after entering, the late Oren threw a ball into the basket and simply out of nowhere suddenly collapsed on the field. His head was thrown on the asphalt.”
What happened in those moments?
“When you see someone fall like that, you do not understand what is happening. I got up to see what was happening to him and realized it was much more serious than I thought. Everyone jumped on him, we tried to shout and call ‘medic, doctor’, but we found no one. “He used to be a paramedic in the army and he started managing the incident. Together with our coach, he started doing CPR and all the other players ran into the compound in a frenzy and tried to look for an ambulance.”
Was there no ambulance at the scene?
“When we arrived we saw two ambulances parked next to the pitch, but they were empty. There was no one in them. It was just a backdrop. When the incident happened, everyone was under atomic pressure. After a few long minutes, we found some older ambulance driver. He arrived, opened the ambulance But he had no equipment, just nothing, only a bed and he could not open it either. “
When did he arrive?
“It took him at least a quarter of an hour to arrive. At the same time, one of the players called an ambulance and he too arrived only after 25 minutes. Our coach and the guy from Soroka continued to resuscitate in the ambulance and drove to the hospital. I drove after them in a taxi. No one was there. So he probably just disappeared from the field. We saw no one there, no doctor, no medic, nothing. When we got to the hospital we were not allowed to enter the hospital. I tried to catch the verb because the Bulgarians do not speak English. For an hour and a half we stood outside the hospital “I begged them to send someone to me. At the end of Clal Insurance, they made sure that an interpreter came to the place and after two hours we were informed that he had died.”
How tragic was that for you?
“Very. I have been involved in sports for 30 years. I am the chairman of the Clal Insurance committee. I have never seen anything like it. People fell apart there. We sat in the hospital all on the floor. A 47-year-old guy walked in our hands. I felt I had to manage the event, but it’s one of the hardest things I went through. “
Did anyone from Hapoel tell you anything about what happened?
“After two hours, the chairman of the board, who left for Bulgaria in general, arrived in the hat of the chairman of the committee of Clalit HMO. They did not know what to do. Yaakov Abuhatzira, who was in charge of the event on behalf of Hapoel, arrived. They did not know what to say. “I went out on him and shouted at him ‘How are you not ashamed? No equipment on the field, no ambulances. What should it be’. I went crazy over it.”
When did the family find out?
“His wife sat on all of us’ phones. Clal Insurance sent a social worker to inform. The Israeli players no longer participated in the tournament, the Bulgarians continued as usual. On Sunday everyone returned to Israel, only me and another player from the company stayed there because I promised the family. I told them I would not move until “That I will not return the body home to Israel. When the time came for the flight back, suddenly everything emptied, no one was left, everyone left, no representative from Hapoel remained.”
What do you mean? No one left to help you?
“Cl. Insurance helped us a lot against the Bulgarians and we turned the world upside down to return the body. In the end it only happened on Tuesday at noon, after we worked hard to return the body and get approval. In practice no one helped. On Monday I did not hold back and wrote in the Histadrut group “The conduct of Hapoel Bizion, left us here alone to return the body to Israel. You have no shame.” After half an hour the whole world called, suddenly everyone wanted to help. I told them ‘too late, you do not need you’. “
How did you feel in this situation?
“Sport for me is first and foremost education. Even if there was no medical equipment, it annoyed me that they left us there alone. These activists came with their wives and went to the casino, but what did they do to treat the situation? The delegation did not return in full, how could none of them Hapoel said in their response to the media that there were two doctors in the place, but they were lying with a determined forehead. There were 30 athletes, no one saw a doctor. What does that make you lie? Mistakes can happen, we are all human, but when something like this happens – why are you Are you running away from it? “
Wasn’t there someone who ran this delegation?
“On the round trip I saw Dina Elimelech. She told me ‘I was told I was the head of the delegation. I do not know what it means, when we land I will understand what it means’. Everything is part.’ I asked for empathy, but she did not stay with us either after he died. I asked the Ministry of Sports and the Histadrut for an external commission of inquiry headed by a judge to investigate all the failures that happened in Bulgaria. Conclusions. “
What do you think of this whole event?
“It’s one big disgrace. It’s time for all these activists to disappear from the sporting landscape. Enough, they do not know how to behave. They have no minimum values or respect. It’s their time to vacate their chair. These are the same faces for many years and they are just completely indifferent to everything. “It happens. They come to hang out, do not think they have a certain responsibility towards something or someone. That’s what drives me crazy. In October there is a sportiada in Eilat with 10,000 people, it does not make sense for these events to continue as usual.”
How did the family of the late Oren Barzilai receive the news and conduct around?
“The family is shattered. I was at seven, they got it hard. It’s heartbreaking. They went through trauma. Waiting for her body for four days is hard because their seven was actually 11 days. I did everything I could to handle this incident, but I “I do not wish for anyone to see this happen and then stand in front of the family in contact. I am 56 years old and this is the first time in my life that I took a sleeping pill to fall asleep. The pictures from this event do not come out of my head and it hurts me that no one takes responsibility.”
The Hapoel Center stated: “First of all, we would like to send our sincere condolences to the family of his wife Oren and children. From an initial examination we conducted with the local organization and also according to the evidence from the field in the playground there was an ambulance and a medical staff that included two doctors who were at the scene and gave initial treatment to Oren who was evacuated within minutes by ambulance. As for the request of the chairman of the Clal employees’ committee, it was referred to the board of directors. “