Tragedy in Bnei Brak: 4 year old drowned in mikveh

From: www.bholworld.com

4 year old Sarah Spivak a"h and her brother went into the mikveh on Yom Kippur • She stumbled into the water and drowned to death • only after the intervention of rabbis, her body was released and funeral left towards Yarkon Cemetery

Tragedy in the midst of the day: today (Shabbos) afternoon, 4 year old Sarah Spivak a"h – drowned in the mikveh on Neufeld Street in Bnei Brak. 

The girl is the daughter of Rabbi Samuel Spivak of Bnei Brak. 

Paramedics and volunteers of Hatzalah performed advanced resuscitation on the child but to no avail. The girl was taken by Mobile Intensive Care Unit to Schneider Hospital in Petach Tikva, where she was declared dead. 

Yechiel Stiglitz senior medic in Hatzalah Dan, who was the first at the scene said: "When we arrived we saw a little girl 4 years old with no pulse and not breathing. We started advanced and prolonged resuscitation. Intensive Care Units staff transferred her to the Schneider hospital whilst continuing CPR." 

Nissim Hest a medic volunteer at Hatzalah, said: "The girl apparently went to the mikvah which remained open from erev Yom Kippur with her brother and slid into the water. 

Her brother ran outside and alerted a passerby who rescued the girl from the water; the man did not know how to handle the case himself and called the rescue forces. For a long time resuscitation was carried out at the scene and she was taken to hospital in critical condition where she was declared dead." 

"On the morning of Yom Kippur, the girl got up and kissed her father," Yisrael Gronich a volunteer at Hatzalah Dan told B'Chadrei Charedim, "then she asked the mother to dress her in white for Yom Kippur. The girl went out with her brother aged 5 and 6, and somehow they went to the mikvah, it is not clear why it was not locked. At this time we are arranging the funeral issues and family support for these difficult moments. 

The funeral was scheduled to leave tonight at 11:30 but a non-invasive test was carried out on the body to determine the cause of death and deny other reasons. Examination revealed a finding that does not fit in case of drowning and thus delayed the release of the body. 

After efforts from Rabbi Hanania Tz'olk of Ezer MeZion and Rabbi Yaakov Roger Rabbis Committee Chairman Zaka at Abu Kabir Institute, the body was released tonight and the funeral left after midnight from the Yarkon funeral home. 

Tel Aviv police reported that they are investigating the circumstances of death, and examined the possibility of negligence by mikvah operators.

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