High-school teacher suddenly collapses and dies after ceremony

‘She was like a mother to us,’ says one of Sarah Malka’s students

By Michal Shmulovich 19 April 2012, 9:41 pm

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Students and teachers participated in a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony at the Ashdod high school where Sarah Malka was a teacher. (photo credit: screenshot courtesy Channel 2)

Sarah Malka, a high-school teacher in her 50s, collapsed and died after a Holocaust memorial ceremony Thursday in Ashdod. Bystanders said it took 20 minutes for Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulances to arrive at the scene.

“She was so loved by everyone,” one of Malka’s students, visibly upset, told Channel 2 News. “She was like a mother to us,” he added. Malka was described as someone who knew how to care for people and listen to them.

Fellow teachers said they were in shock and that her death was completely sudden and unexpected.

Malka had complained that she did not feel well during the ceremony and was given water. When the event ended, she collapsed.

Three of Malka’s students who were trained as volunteers for MDA immediately began resuscitation efforts and were apparently able to restore a pulse.

Malka was then taken to nearby Barzilai Hospital — paramedics claimed it took them 12 minutes to arrive at the scene, not 20 — where she was pronounced dead. Doctors believe she may have lost consciousness due to cardiac arrest.

Malka was buried in the Ashdod cemetery hours after her sudden death.