Austrian Man Collapses After Eating Tahina For First Time – And Is Saved By Alert Jerusalem Medics

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — 46-year-old Walther Spilman, a representative of a sports technology company, arrived in Israel for work meetings with the Ariel company which directs the Jerusalem sports center Arena. Spilman was inspecting equipment for an ice hockey rink which would be used during the coming Maccabiah games.

Walther suffers from an allergy to sesame and all his life has been careful not to eat foods containing sesame. However when he arrived at his Jerusalem hotel he tasted a spread he had never seen before, tahina, unaware that it is full of sesame seeds.

During the course of a meeting at the Arena center, Spilman felt ill and went to the bathroom, where he collapsed and suffered cardiac arrest. His partner realized that he had been gone for a while and called for help. Tziyon Biri, the maintenance manager, realized that something was wrong and broke into the bathroom, removed Spilman and raced to get a defibrillator from the wall nearby.

MDA paramedic Levi Fleischmann was on hand and commenced CPR together with Biri and after compressions and three shocks from the defibrillator, Spilman’s pulse returned and he was rushed to Shaarei Tzedek hospital for emergency catheterization.

Doctors at the hospital were surprised to find that Spilman did not have any major blockages in his arteries but later discovered that Spilman had been unaware that tahina is comprised of sesame seeds and ate a lot which led to a sharp allergic reaction and a constriction of the heart’s arteries which led to cardiac arrest.

Dr. Elad Asher, director of the cardiology department’s ICU said that if there had not been a defibrillator, Spilman would not have made it to the hospital.

Spilman thanked the doctors and said that “when you travel the world you do not always recognize the culinaric menu of each country. I had a syringe on me but despite feeling ill I did not imagine that it was an allergic attack. I feel luck that the right professionals were in place at the right time and place to save my life.”