A 15-year-old Magen David Adom youth volunteer injured in Monday’s deadly school trip explosion in the Upper Galilee immediately began treating his friends, performing CPR on a critically injured boy and helping his younger brother despite sustaining shrapnel wounds himself.

Yair Frankenthal, a resident of Ma’alot, was among students from ORT Ma’alot Yeshiva High School hiking on the Ramim Ridge when unexploded ordnance detonated near Mitzpe Pe’er.

The explosion killed 14-year-old Elazar Yair Wilensky, the youngest of five siblings, and injured another 24 people. Four were seriously injured, seven moderately and 13 lightly.

“After hearing the huge explosion, I realized that I had been injured too, but I immediately began checking who needed medical assistance so I could help using the knowledge I had gained in my first aid course,” Frankenthal recalled.

While other students called MDA’s emergency hotline, Frankenthal approached one of the most severely injured boys.

“I noticed that he had no pulse and was not breathing, so I performed CPR on him until the first responder arrived,” he said.

His younger brother had also been wounded by shrapnel. Frankenthal checked on him and instructed a nearby friend who was helping control the bleeding, allowing him to return to those with more serious injuries.

“My younger brother, who was also on the trip, was injured by shrapnel, and I went to check on his condition,” he said. “A friend who was next to him helped stop the bleeding, and I instructed him on what to do so that I could go help those who were more seriously injured.”

Frankenthal suffered minor injuries from two pieces of shrapnel that penetrated his leg and shoulder. He was expected to be discharged home Tuesday.

“Baruch Hashem, I was only lightly injured,” he said, adding that he felt well and was happy to be returning home.

The first emergency responder to reach the scene was David Radko, 29, an MDA emergency medical technician and motorcycle unit volunteer from Kiryat Shmona.

Radko, who also works as a tenth-grade homeroom teacher, was returning from work when MDA’s dispatch center sent him to the incident. He said the difficult terrain complicated access to the injured.

Upon arrival, he found casualties scattered along the trail, with students holding wounded friends and trying to help them.

“Even at first glance, it was clear that this was an extremely difficult scene,” he recalled.

As a teacher of students around the same age, Radko said the incident struck him particularly deeply. He found himself thinking of the wounded teenagers as though they were his own students and identifying with the teachers accompanying the trip.

He immediately began assessing the casualties and controlling bleeding while helping additional rescue teams reach the scene.

Radko praised the students’ resourcefulness, saying that despite their own injuries and fear, they worked together to assist their friends. Some had applied tourniquets to control bleeding.

“I gave them instructions on how to help, and they listened and acted accordingly,” he said. “We did everything we could to provide them with the best possible treatment.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)