Apparently, for Rambam Drs Rotem and Moshe Lapidot, saving lives in hospital wards was not enough. At great risk to themselves, the physician-couple entered a burning building to rescue a two-year old girl and her mother, who were trapped in the flames.
 
Drs. Rotem and Moshe Lapidot are now known as “the angels of Rambam”. After rushing into a blazing apartment to save a toddler and her mother, the Rambam physicians have become heroes, whose faces are now known in nearly every household in Israel.
Visiting in Moshav Meishar near Gadera in November, Dr Moshe Lapidot, who specializes in chest surgery at Rambam and his wife, Dr Rotem Lapidot who works in the hospital’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, heard screams. Following the cries, they saw a woman hanging out of a smoking second-story window, calling for help. She shouted that her baby was trapped in the other side of the house, and she couldn’t reach her.

 
 “We went inside without thinking twice,” continued Rotem. “I understood that every second meant more damage to the child, and we were working against the clock.” Moshe, who had served in the Paratroop Commando Unit in the army, climbed to the second floor of the burning building to rescue the mother. He then returned to the flames and sought the girl according to the mother’s frantic instructions. “I was so afraid for the girl and for my husband, who I thought would never get out of there the same as he’d gone in,” recalled Rotem.  I will never forget the picture of him coming out of the apartment with the girl in his arms.”

After giving the girl two breaths of artificial respiration, Moshe passed her to Rotem, who continued treatment. Those first two breaths, in effect, saved the child’s life.Michal and her mother were evacuated to the hospital. In serious condition, the girl was unconscious and had to be respirated. Within a week, she was breathing unassisted, and with her mother, was released to go home.

In a letter to the Lapidots, Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman wrote. “I read about your heroic actions with heart-pounding excitement.  You displayed great courage and dedication when you saved a mother and daughter trapped in their burning apartment. You didn’t think of yourselves and endangered your own lives to aid the mother and child. There is a phrase that suits you perfectly: ‘Save one life and you save an entire world’.”