United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer giving a TEDMED talk in 2013. Photo: Screenshot.

JNS.org – United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer woke up from a coma and was taken off a ventilator on April 9 at the University of Miami Hospital, where he is recovering from the coronavirus.

The 46-year-old, who is also president of the U.S.-based organization Friends of United Hatzalah, is now breathing on his own and able to communicate with his family. He has also begun physical therapy, United Hatzalah told Yeshiva World News.

Beer has since tested negative twice for COVID-19, and as a result, is being moved out of the COVID-19 ICU unit and into the hospital’s surgical ICU unit. He was in a medically induced coma and breathing through the use of a ventilator for the past three weeks.

He apparently contracted COVID-19 while in the United States after coming in contact with the rabbi of a Miami synagogue who was also diagnosed with virus, entering the hospital in mid-March.