Atara Shabo flanked by her niece Uri and father, Boaz.

When Atara Shabo was a teenager, a terrorist broke into her family’s house, murdered her mother and three of her siblings, and seriously injured two of her other siblings.

Magen David Adom EMT Netanel Angel arrived at the Shabo home while there was still active gunfire and immediately began treating Shabo’s family. While Shabo was not home at the time of the attack, she was nearby. She ran back to her house when she heard the loud noises and realized they were coming from her home. As soon as he saw her, Angel removed Shabo from the dangerous scene and brought her to a bulletproof security vehicle to protect her while he continued caring for her injured family members.

Fast forward two decades, Shabo’s connection to MDA has now come full circle. She recently completed the MDA EMT course and has begun volunteering with MDA. Instead of succumbing to the grief she endured as a teenager, Shabo has chosen to help others.

Angel is now an instructor for MDA’s EMT course and coincidentally, it was he who taught Shabo’s EMT course.

Shabo credits the horrific attack on her family with setting her on a path to becoming an EMT. “I realized I had the opportunity to help others as others helped us,” she said.

Atara Shabo at her EMT course graduation ceremony with Netanel Angel, left, Health Minister Uriel Busso, and Boaz Shabo, her father.

Volunteering with MDA is a family affair for the Shabos, a family who has chosen to save lives despite facing unimaginable tragedy themselves. In becoming an EMT, Shabo followed the footsteps of her father, Boaz, who has been a MDA volunteer for many years. Shabo’s niece Uri, 17, is a youth volunteer.

In addition to her volunteer work with MDA, Shabo works full time as a teacher and is the mother of four children; she even delivered one of them in a MDA ambulance.

Now as a MDA EMT, Shabo sometimes finds herself in difficult situations. However, she’s able to disconnect her own painful history and focus on how she can help in the moment. She said, “I can make the separation and address each incident individually. I see it as an opportunity to help someone and save their life.”

Watch an interview with Atara Shabo and Netanel Angel: