The Roof is on Fire—Literally

Wednesday, July-28-10

So I haven’t had that CPR or birth I’ve been hoping for but last night I did get to be at one of the neatest scenes I’ve been to yet. It was just two of us chulnikim and a driver which as I’ve said before is my favourite combination. We started with pretty simple calls which each seemed to take forever. There was a 24y/o male who fainted and was feeling weak and wanted to go to a hospital in another city, then we were called to an apartment as the third ambulance team to help carry a patient down the stairs, and then we had an old man who was feeling weak and also wanted to be taken to a hospital in a different city. These 3 calls took us until about 3am and then we finally got back to the station for some sleep. An hour later we got a call for a car accident and when we got to the scene the victim refused treatment and since the police were already there we left. As soon as we pressed evacuate on the masaphone (hand held computer) we got another dachuf (emergency status) call. They didn’t really say was it was for but when we got there it was evident. It was a building fire.

When we arrived, it was just ourselves and one police car. There wasn’t really anything we could do besides check for people outside (which there were none) and watch the apartment building burn. Within minutes of our arrival the first fire truck arrived and they began their protocol. Some of the firemen tapped the fire hydrants and got water hoses going while a few others suited up and headed inside. A cherry picker (fire truck with a hydraulic platform) and another fire truck arrived just as the men were coming out of the building having completed their initial survey and by that time the police had learned that the apartment building was abandoned. So it was good news for us, and it wasn’t likely that we were going to have any patients. The scene was like one from the movies. There was a commander giving orders, firefighters all geared up unrolling equipment and hooking up more hoses, and then the real ‘show’ began. The cherry picker’s basket went up about 4 stories, carrying two firefighters and they began fighting the fire from above. By this time the roof of the building had now collapsed and the fire was controlled but still burning viciously. It took about 1:45hr for the fire to be completely put out and by this time there were many spectators and the sun had come up. Never in my life have I even seen so much water, especially in a country that well certainly doesn’t have much to spare.
Even though no one was initially injured in the fire we had to be there in case someone (one of the firefighters) needed us so we only left when the fire department left, which was at about 6:15am. By this time we were exhausted and antsy to get back to the station but we immediately got another call. It was all the way to Ramat Gan (okay it’s not far, but after being up all night it was too far) for a nesiya regila (non-urgent call). It was for a 35y/o woman who isn’t feeling well. Just as we gott to the apartment the woman’s brother also arrived. When he found out that nothing is really wrong he convinced her (not so quickly) not to go with us to the emergency room but instead to see their family doctor in a couple hours. Which was fine, but really couldn’t they have had that conversation before they called 101. I guess not. After filling out the paperwork we headed back and I was now full out falling asleep in my chair. Rarely have I ever been that tired on a shift. Just when I thought we were safe, we got one last call. It was for an older woman who was having an asthma attack. We got her into our bed and the נט''ן-natan (ICU) team arrived so we handed her off. It was hard to believe that we hadn’t been back since 4am or something, without even being at the hospital once but we finally we got back to the station at about 7:30am and by this time I was definitely impatient for the shift to end.

Being that close to a fire was an unreal experience. Not knowing if there were people trapped inside, seeing the firefighters respond, and just being able to feel the heat radiating off the building are all things I will remember. Today I took the day off to catch up on some sleep and I’m looking forward to the weekend since family friends flying in tomorrow. Below are some pictures from the scene. There wasn’t really much for us to do so we joined the police and sat on the backs of their cars watching the fire department do what they do best.

מזא''ה-Mazeh II

Monday, July-26-10

Thinking back now, my overnight shift yesterday was only my second shift at the מזא''ה -Mazeh station. I was convinced I had spread out my shifts more evenly between the three stations here in Tel Aviv but I guess I have been mistaken. I suppose it’s because a lot of the time once we leave a station we go anywhere and everywhere within the דן-dan region, sometimes even crossing or being called into other regions, so it hasn’t really mattered what where I have begun my shifts.

Anyways, with the session technically ending today I can already notice the drop in people on each shift. So last night it was not surprising that my chul partner and I were split up so there could be two even teams. Although I was looking forward to having one of our last shifts together my team was really good. It was with driver I’ve had before and another young woman who was probably around 23 y/o. In my experience there are more guys working than girls so it’s always nice to have a change.

The shift began before I even walked through the as door. As I reached for the handle the driver walked through and said, “Are you working משמרת לילה-meshmeret layla (night shift)?” I said yes, and he said, “let’s go we have a call”...it wasn’t even 10:45pm yet. We go and the call is for a homeless man lying on the sidewalk. He had some blood coming from his mouth but otherwise he was fine. He told us he didn’t want to go to the hospital and as usual we didn’t try to persuade him otherwise and left. Just as we got out of the ambulance back at the station we got another call. To the same address! We went back to the same guy and this time there is a tourist who was standing next to him. I’m not sure if she was mentally 100% but I guess she convinced the guy to go to the hospital and once he requested of course we could not refuse. This tourist lady thanked us profusely for taking him and we headed off to Ichilov. Next we were called to the Sheraton Tel Aviv which is a fancy beach side hotel. There was a man lying on the lobby floor in suit pants and his collared shirt open. His friend explained to us that he was just extremely drunk and that was definitely quite obvious. He was barely responsive and had zero muscle control, so much so that we had to buckle his hands into the seatbelt to prevent them from falling off the stretcher and use the head vices to keep his head from falling. It was a simple transfer to Ichilov and when we got there the staff weren’t too impressed as usual. Next call was to a very sketchy neighbourhood. We couldn’t even make out which apartment was which so we had to call dispatch and they called the patient to ask if someone could come down to let us in. Soon the son of an elderly woman came and showed us to the apartment, which was actually really nice inside. She was a cancer patient and was just all around not feeling well and wanted to go to the hospital. We were relieved that she could walk since it was a least 4 sets of stairs down to the bed. Again we headed off to Ichilov but this time instead of having our break we headed straight back to the station. Our driver figured he’d rather be in bed even if it meant he was susceptible to getting a call and since it was already 4am we were all pretty tired. Even though we just had four calls, I find during the overnight shifts the turnover time is much longer and each call often takes over an hour or longer. After about an hour of sleep we got another call. We arrived and found the address but no one was answering to let us in. Once again we called dispatch and they said they were still on the line with patient and that the side door was open for us. We open the door and the entire house was completely black. We turn on the lights and continue to yell out the man’s name. Dispatch is still on the phone with both of us and tells us that the patient says he can hear us and to go into the left door. Finally we found the patient. Turns out he was a double below the knee amputee which explained why he could not come to the door himslef. Apparently he didn’t need us for treatment or the hospital but instead he needed us to wake up his מטפל-caretaker who was asleep in the other bedroom. We woke him up and that was about it. It was about 5:45am when we got to the station and we were able to sleep out the rest of the shift.


Today is technically the last day of our session and many people have already had their last shifts. Since I’m here for another 2 weeks, I’ve extended my ambulance insurance and I’m hoping to get a few more in before I leave. Being the last week, we didn’t fill a new schedule so now those of us left are shift doing shifts whenever we feel like and there is an open slot. I’m doing the overnight again tonight and then maybe one or two more this week. I’m hoping to go a trip within Israel and visit some family friends over the weekend and into the beginning of next week and then perhaps get some more shifts in towards the end of next week. It would be nice to work a bit with the next group of Tel Aviv Chulnikim too so maybe that will work out. With everyone leaving at different times, it really doesn’t feel like the program has finished at all, but to everyone who just completed their last shift on a מד''א-MDA ambulance; מזל טוב-mazel tov. I hope you enjoyed the experience as much as I have.

Communication

Saturday, July-24-10

Yesterday morning was a great shift. There were four of us in the ambulance; a driver who I had never been with before, an Israeli volunteer, and two of us chulniks. The nicest thing about this shift was that the two of them really respected us. The older volunteer was 34 and is studying towards a Ph.D in history and had less MDA training than us, so the entire day he was opening to learning more and not showing us up. It was a sweet atmosphere with actual intellectual conversations for a change and it made the day really enjoyable.

First we checked the entire ambulance and now that we’ve been there a while they trust us to fill out the paperwork ourselves. We were then sent on a אבטחה-avtacha (translates to security/protection?) by the police. I don’t really know what it translates directly to in English, but it’s when we get sent to an event or game or something and wait on standby in case someone gets injured. So we begin driving out to these sand dunes and they tell us we’re going be on standby while swat detonates a mortar bomb. It was pretty neat to see. We were chilling in the ambulance at a very safe distance away and then there was a BOOM and a cloud of smoke went up in the air, about the size of a tennis court. 10min later the police and swat cars drove out of the sand dune, said good morning and that was the end of that. I guess detonations are pretty routine for them, but it was a different experience, especially something that I would probably never see at home. Just as we drove into the city we got our next call. It was for an overdose, so we rushed there not knowing what to expect. We arrived to a middle-aged woman lying in bed, seemingly fine just complaining of weakness and dizziness. Our driver begun talking to her and this is when I first learned how thorough he is with patients, it was refreshing to see. Turns out she had depression and other psychological programs and took 7 times the normal dose of her antidepressant medication. We took her to the hospital and later our driver told us that with the drug she took and the dose, it wasn’t so much a suicide but more likely attention seeking behaviour, kind of sad. Our next call was for a man with stomach pains or so we figured. We could only imagine because this guy was a relatively new immigrant who only spoke Russian and not one word of Hebrew or English. After his neighbours tried to help us, we kind of gave up and just took him to the hospital. At least Russian is a pretty common language to come across in Israel so plenty of doctors were able to help him out. Thinking back, it was really frustrating not people able to communicate at all and it really made me appreciate how easy it normally is. I mean this guy didn’t understand anything, not even what ‘water’ or in Hebrew ‘מים-mayiim’ was. Without being back to the station from the start of the shift we went on to our next call. It was to be תגבור-tigboor (reinforcing?) for another team. We got there and saw two other ambulances outside and were thinking, oh no, what could they possibly need another ambulance for. Turns out this woman weighed 170+kg and they needed to carry her down 2 flights of stairs. As you can probably imagine I wasn’t too helpful and I carried the equipment. Since we didn’t receive the original call, weren’t responsible for the transfer to the hospital and went on with another call. This was for a homeless man lying in כיכר מגן-דוד-Kikar Magen-David (Star of David Square). For those of you who have not visited Israel this intersection is insane, especially on Friday afternoons. 6 streets meet and look like the Magen-David or Star of David (hence the name) and it is also where Shuk HaCarmel (the outdoor market) and Nachlat Binyamin (the artist market) begin and is just down the road from Dizengoff Centre, a major shopping centre. So we finally manoeuvred around all the people and got to the man who was lying on the side of the road and of course was just fine. Although he did have the most terrible sores on his legs that I had ever seem. Almost like small craters of his skin were missing, it was disguising but there wasn’t anything we could do, he need long term treatment, so we advised him to do so and left.

Finally we got back to the station for the first time all day with an hour left in the shift. We were waiting it out, just talking to people who were coming on for the next shift and we got one final call. We headed out to the south part of Tel Aviv which isn’t the nicest part of town. It was a call to a small shop and when we got there this woman was sitting on the floor screaming at the staff. From what I could gather she was sitting on a stool in the store that broke under her and she hit her head when she fell. She was fine medically, but making a huge scene, screaming that she was going to call the police and so on so we got her out of there quickly and did one of the quickest complete transfers to the hospital and got out of there as possible. It was 15min after our shift was supposed to be over after all. We said goodbye to our driver and the other volunteer and I think the same four of us will be working together Sunday night, which I’m really looking forward too. Otherwise the weekend has been full of relaxing and hanging out with friends. Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I apologize for slacking with the posts.

מד''א-MDA Talk

This is pretty much what I said at the tekes for those interested...

Hi everyone. I’m Lisa for those of us who haven’t met and I was asked to speak a little about the MDA experience.

This summer we lived from shift to shift and call to call, perhaps not realizing how fast this experience was actually going by. We all came here with different reasons in mind. Some of us wanted to try something new. Some of us were looking for any reason at all to be in Israel. And of course there are those of us who are med school hopefuls and are trying to build up those ridiculous resumes. Regardless of the reason for volunteering with MDA, we have all gained knowledge that exceeded our expectations.

For me, it was during one overnight shift when we received a call to the jail. We arrived and a guard escorted us from the front of the station to the holding cells around the back. Just being in the jail was an experience in itself. It was hot, smelled of urine, and was just all around disgusting. We got to the back and there was a man sitting in a chair in apparent distress. He was breathing fast, sweating, and saying that he was having stabbing chest pains. So I began to think that this guy was having a heart attack. Next I was asked to take his blood pressure and I was surprised—it was normal. We gave him oxygen and our driver decided to call for a natan, but just before he did he whispered to us, “it’s HY, hyperventilation”. The natan team came in and they decided to take him to the hospital to be safe. Now all of a sudden the policemen were getting angry because they realised that they were now going to have accompany us to the hospital. And that’s when one of them yelled, “why are you taking him, he’s a rapist, and raped someone today”.

After I heard that I couldn’t look at him again as if he was just any other patient. I know that we are supposed to treat everyone the same regardless of the situation, but in that moment I hesitated and was just relieved that he wasn’t going to be in my ambulance. We saw this man a couple hours later at the hospital and indeed he was just fine. That night definitely gave me some perspective and the next time I found myself treating a drunk driver who had just carelessly crashed into four cars, it was much easier to put my own feelings aside.

That’s what these last few weeks have been about, a time for firsts. We handled our first CPRs, car accidents, heart attacks, strokes, deaths, and on the opposite spectrum--births. Each time, having to seem knowledgeable despite it being the first time we were witnessing events like these in our lives. We got to take part in situations that few people have ever experienced, not to mention people our age.
To whichever country you return to, you are returning with an unbelievably unique experience. They told us that there are approximately 600 participants in the MDA Chul program each year. I’m sure many of us have been in a university class that’s bigger than that, but in Israel, that number is huge. Our time here has given us insight, and one day will be prepared for a situation directly because of what we learned here. Even if we didn’t have ‘life saving’ calls and found ourselves doing transports each day, the experience was a humbling one. We’ve now seen people at some of their worst and most undignified times and it’s got to have affected us somehow, even if we’ve just discovered that we never want to grow old or don’t want to give birth after all.

There are many people that have worked really hard to keep this opportunity open to us and who we must thank.

First; Aryeh and Almog. They have gone to no end, coordinating everything. Consecutive courses, applications, emails, and much much more. Although our session will end, for them the work never does. And let’s face it we’re not the easiest group of people to please.

Then there are all of our Madrichim. They taught us well while passing on their enthusiasm for MDA at the same time. Many of them are volunteering just like us and it’s because of them that some of us cringe at nesiya regalias and smile with excitement when the moked says dachuf.

There are also many people, who we didn’t meet. Coordinators at stations across the country and within the Yochai Porat Overseas Program, that have worked just as hard to make this a reality.

To everyone involved—thank you.

At this point, we have all been here for at least 6 weeks. With the MDA experience in hand we are returning home feeling more confident in Israel than ever before. We spoke, or at least listened to the language, figured out the buses, and ate our share of shwarma and falafel. It’s rare to have an opportunity to ‘try out’ almost every aspect of a new society, but that’s exactly what we got to do. Perhaps your time here has inspired you to come back again and if not that’s okay too. But it is definitely a great feeling to be comfortable in the country we can call home if we ever do choose.

Finally, I’m sure I can’t be the only one who’s had the following experience. You’re in the back of the ambulance talking to a patient and they notice your not so Israeli accent. They ask you where you’re from and you reply. Then they ask if you’re an oleh hadash or something like that and you explain; you’re just here volunteering for the summer. To that they reply, kol-hakavod lecha. Maybe this also happened when you were on the bus, or walking home from your shift still in uniform. Wherever it did, just realise that you deserve each and every compliment. Because kol-hakavod MDA Chul, we are all doing something to be proud of this summer.

Back to Beit Yehuda

Thursday, July-22-10

Beware, this post turned out rather long but it does cover two days.

Yesterday we headed back to Jerusalem for the MDA tekes (ceremony) in memory of Yochai Porat. They arranged for buses to pick us up in Tel Aviv and we spent the day back at Beit Yehuda wher our course was held. It was no nice to see everyone, especially since I hardly saw anyone who wasn’t living in Tel Aviv or many of the madrichim (instructors) at all. The next group, MDA 96 was also there (their program started that same day) so I got to say hi to a friend from home who arrived and also put some names to faces that I’ve been emailing over the last few weeks. We heard presentations from Yochai’s father, the madrichim, MDA international, and our program coordinator which were all extremely well done. I also got to speak about the MDA experience which was really neat! Afterwards we got our certificates, took pictures, and then boarded the buses back to our cities. By the time we got back to TA, I had just enough time to shower, eat, and head to the station for my overnight shift.

This overnight shift was so busy! Nothing ‘lifesaving’ but we had seven calls which kept us going all night. It was just myself, another chulnik, and a youngish driver in the ambulance so it was very relaxed and fun. Our first call was to Dizengoff Centre and dispatch said it was for people stuck in an elevator. We raced there (of course with music blaring the entire time) from Ramat Gan where we were dropping off someone from the erev-evening shift and by the time we got everything unloaded and to the correct floor the call was cancelled. As usual. Straight after we got our next call. I’m not sure where we in the city exactly, but it was probably the creepiest neighbourhood I have been too. Our driver even made us wait in the ambulance until he checked the area before we got out. The call was made by a wife whose husband wasn’t answering the door. Again by the time we got up the 4 flights of stairs, he had answered and was just fine. Never mind taking a break to ‘search for the patient’, this time we got back into the ambulance and pressed evacuate asap—it was just so creepy there. Once again we got another call immediately. We arrived to an apartment and the police were already there along with some neighbours. The story was that they found this 90 y/o man outside on the steps to the apartment building sleeping. Apparently he had slept walked out of his bed and ended up there. After talking to him for a while and seeing that he wasn’t injured and didn't want to go the hospital his מטפל-caretaker ran in the door. He had gone out drinking when he wasn’t supposed to leave the man alone. So now this call kind of took a turn to social work instead of emergency services. Before we could leave we asked the man all sorts of questions concerning how his מטפל-caretaker cares for him, while the police questioned him outside. 1.5hrs later it was determined that everything was fine and we all left. Not so interesting medically but was an experience.

We finally got back to the station at about 3am for the first time since the shift began. I actually fell completely asleep and didn’t even hear the call over the intercom a half hour later. We got into the ambulance and listened to the call. Someone fell about of bed and can’t get up. Usually I’m hoping that since we are getting a call this late at night that it’s epic, but this time I was just happy it wasn’t. I figured we’d go, pick him/her up and be back in bed in no time. Well it wasn’t so easy. We arrived to a 160kg (352lb?) man sitting on the floor. It was obviously that the 3 of us weren’t going to be moving him anywhere quickly so we called for back-up and another team arrived. This ‘easy’ call turned into an hour of muscle exercise, which I probably needed—but not at 4am. Anyways the man and his wife were really thankful. Without getting back to bed we got our next call for a homeless to the side of the road somewhere. In the end it wasn’t actually a homeless person but a man trying to catch a cab home from the bars. Not very exciting. Our final call was for a man who was cokplaning of heartburn. He had taken some sort of drug that I didn’t catch the name of and our driver was not impressed. He seemed just fine but requested to go to Ichilov so we took him. When we arrived the ER staff were also not impressed and argued with our driver over why we brought him here, right in front of the patient! Not of the finest public displays by supposed professionals I’ve witnessed. This time we made sure to take our 20min, which turned into more like 40min break. Apparently there is a trick that if you press the evacuate button and don’t click ‘yes’ when it asks you, “are you sure you want to evacuate?” it freezes the time stamp. Sneaky.

We got back to the station with 20min remaining in the shift and thankfully didn’t get last minute call. When I got home I went straight to bed and woke in time to fight the internet and get into my last course for this fall, which was a success. I even made it out to the נמל-namal (port) to meet a friend in the evening, which rarely happens after a night shift so I consider the day quite a success. Tomorrow I work the morning and then I have both Saturday and Sunday off. I’m happy with a bit of a longer weekend since it will probably be my last weekend with most of my MDA 95 friends who are leaving next week, Tuesday technically being our last shifts. I’m hoping to extend my ambulance insurance and fit in a couple more before I leave on August 8th but I will wait and see what plans come up. Until then, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a CPR or a birth!

Nothing Wrong with Normality

Tuesday, July-20-10

Last night’s shift was certainly nothing special. It was probably my quietest shift so far with just two calls. The first was for an old man with a high fever. The family wanted to pay extra for him to go to hospital near Rishon LeZion which was fine, just the call ended up taking almost 2hrs in total. The second was for a lady in A. Fib and by the time we took her downstairs the נט''ן-natan (ICU) team was waiting for us.

The rest of the today was also uneventful. I slept a bit, did some things around the apartment, and did some shopping. I really enjoy that each day doesn't have to be epic. I’m much happier not trying to do as many shifts as humanly possible and not trying to attempt to do something special each day just because I’m in Israel. One of my favourite things about the last two months has been how normal it feels to be living here. Tomorrow we are all heading back to Jerusalem for the annual ceremony in memory of Yochai Porat (who the program is named after) and we will be receiving our certificates. I can’t wait to see everyone and if it doesn’t go so late I might make a day out of it and go to the old city. Although we’ll see since I’m working the overnight as well.

Fire's Out, Time for a Smoke

Sunday, July-18-10

Pretty typical Sunday on the ambulance today. It was harder than ever to get wake up this morning and I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the 5:45am start. For some reason the station was actually not a complete mess this morning. I was put with the slow driver from, “Glorified Taxi Service” and he is a nice guy, but seriously so so lazy. We had a busy day as most Sundays are (the beginning of the week here) and had seven calls I believe and I think he only put on two pairs of gloves all day. Our calls for the day were as follows, point form today...I’m tired.

-Old woman with a high fever who was feeling sick. She vomited all the way to the hospital, included some projection onto another volunteer in the ambulance (he is an older man who volunteers with Mda once a week). It was a great way to start the day. We saw her later on at the hospital and turns out she had a virus that spread to her heart. Not cool.

-Next was a call for a homeless man who is well known amongst the medics at our station. He was asleep on the sidewalk with his bottle of vodka next to him and someone called for an ambulance. We woke him up and that was the end of that call.

-Old man with Parkinson’s fell in his apartment. Hurt his shoulder and side. It was a simple transfer to the hospital. He was really sweet.

-We got our next call before our 20min break was up at the hospital. Our driver was definitely not happy. He wanted his cigarette. But it was a call for a fire so it would have to wait. Turns out it was a small fire where no one was injured and it was put out before we arrived. Good thing for our driver. Him, the other volunteer, and a couple of the fireman had time to chat and smoke. Yes, just outside the fire leaning on the firetruck. Only in Israel.

-Next was a 15 y/o girl who was dehydrated from throwing up. Nothing to exciting but I got to visit Dana, Ichilov’s children’s emergency wing. If I get sick here I’m definitely pretending I’m 16 and going to Dana. They have colourful walls and everyone is so nice. The family was also from Montéal so we got to be helpful with our awesome English skills.

-We also had a call for a seizure today. Didn’t do much besides evacuate to the road and hand off to the נט''ן-natan (ICU) team, but it was still a pretty exciting call to be a part of. The man was epileptic and it was the longest seizure I’ve seen so far.

-Our final call for the day was for an elderly lady who fell about 4 days earlier and now thinks she may have broken a rib. It was also an easy transfer to Ichilov.

Thinking back it was a very busy shift. I’m actually exhausted tonight since I missed my nap and went out for dinner, which was really nice. And tomorrow I get to sleep in since I only start at 11pm for the overnight so I'm looking forward to that. Goodnight!

Around the World

Saturday, July-17-10

I don’t have too much to say today. I got to sleep in this morning and spent a great day at the beach with friends. This evening I also spent some time trying to figure out these blogging websites and I made a discovery. In something called my blog’s log it shows me all different countries where people read from. There were the typical ones, Israel, Canada, USA, and England but then there were also countries on the list that I never would have expected. Hungry, Spain, Czech Republic, Turkey, Australia, France, and Mexico too. Pretty damn cool. When I started this, I didn’t think it would make it past my parents and maybe a few friends back home, but with the help of the מד''א coordinator more people have read it than I ever thought would. This site has even exceeded the free log space they give you so now I’m considering upgrading my membership. Tomorrow I begin my last full week of shifts and I can hardly believe it. I really hope I finish with some epic stories to tell but until then, thank you to everyone who cares to read, you make my day.

A Different Side of Things

Friday, July-16-10

Today I had a new Mda/Israel experience. I spent the day at Ichilov (the main hospital here in TA) for a family friend with his family. In order to respect his privacy I’m not going to say why we were there but I want to comment on just how different it was. Since the beginning of my time volunteering in Tel Aviv I don’t think a shift hasn’t gone by where I haven’t been to Ichilov. Multiple times each day I pass through the emergency room doors, but today it was very different. Usually we bring a patient in, ignore most of what is going on around us and ask the head nurse which bed we should go to. We change the bed sheet, transfer the patient, head across the room for a blanket, and get out of there. Sometimes we have few words with a doctor exchanging any relevant information but that’s about it. We spend the rest of our time there outside, hanging out around the ambulances smoking/second hand smoking or drinking coffee in the מד''א-MD’’A break room. Today I was not in uniform and although I was in the same place things were much different. For the first time I noticed all the families and the patients, instead of just blowing right past them. Some were tears and others were frustrated waiting and waiting for treatment or news. Today I was one of those people. I experienced the frustration and time things took to get done. There was also a big difference in respect I got from the nurses and doctors. Instead of someone who they saw as helpful I was now in their way. Although it’s usually never a good thing to be in the emergency room/hospital I’m glad a got to see things from a different perspective. It was also nice to run into multiple Mda people throughout the day and have them recognize me without my uniform on—it really showed how far our relationships at the station have come over the last month or so. Perhaps this coming Sunday when I’m back on shift, I will walk through Ichilov with my eyes actually open to all that’s going on around me after today’s humbling experience. Shabbat shalom to everyone and enjoy your weekends!

Breakfast, Shwarma, & Rogalach

Friday, July-16-10

So I know it seems like lately I’ve been saying that each of the last shifts have been some of my favourite but it’s true. They just seem to be getting better and better. And it’s really not that calls that have changed. Today I was once again with a team (driver, medic, & another chulnik) which I loved and it is definitely the team that makes will either make the shift awesome or dreadful, so I knew the day was going to be good no matter what that calls were. Being that we were stationed in Yafo today we had to head there from the main station where the shift starts, after doing our ambulance checks of course. I really like that we leave the station to go to Yafo because I think it gives us a chance to get a call earlier than if we were still waiting at the station, especially for the morning shift since dispatch knows that ambulances and teams still at the station might not be ready to go. This worked and on our way we got our first call. A drug overdose. We get to the guys apartment with all the equipment not really knowing what to expect and find him lying on the ground really groggy and crying. He really wasn’t being so cooperative and everything time we asked him questions like, what is your name, age, how many pills did you take, and why did you take them? He replied to each of them, “I don’t want to say.” Thankfully he agreed to go to the hospital and we loaded him up and took him to Ichilov. After the transfer our driver told us to come back to the ambulance because we were leaving. I was confused since we always have our 20-30min break at the hospital but soon I understood. He had taken us to a nearby mall for some breakfast. He was so awesome and relaxed and breakfast was a sweet was to start the day. Next call was for a homeless person in the park. We got there and as usual a bystander had called for no reason. He said he didn’t need our help and back to the ambulance we went, but instead of leaving our driver just pulls out the newspaper and puts on some music. After some chill time at the part we got a chance to go back to the station. We were only there for about 20min and that would be that last time we were there all day. The next call was for a lady going into anaphylactic shock from taking medication she was allergic too. By the time we got there, grabbed all of our equipment and ran up the 4 flights of stairs the נט''ן-Natan team was already just behind us. Our driver helped them carry her down the stairs and that was about it for us. She went with the ICU ambulance and I’m not really sure what happened after that. Immediately after leaving that scene we got our next call to a קופת חולים-kupat holim (Health Maintenance Organization or HMO). In Israel, I believe how it works is that instead of OHIP like we have at home, everyone here belongs to a HMO of their choice. In the ambulance we always ask whichקופת חולים-kupat holim they belong too so we know who to bill (I think this is how it works) but each company also has clinics which their members can go to. So this call was to one of them for a man who wasn’t feeling well and had low blood pressure. It was a simple transfer to the hospital and once again instead of chilling around the emergency room drop of centre getting second hand smoke as per usual, our driver asks who wants to go for shwarma! We all agree and go to a great place which of course I’ve now been to multiple times on different shifts. Mid-shwarma we get an emergency status call for a moped/car accident. We take our lunch to go and get there in no time. Only the moped driver was injured so we backboarded to be safe (he was complaining of some back pain) and took him to Ichilov. His only injury was probably a broken leg but when we got to the hospital one of the emergency doctors was really not nice and criticized us for putting on a neckbrace. Sorry for follow protocol. That was our last call for the day and of course we didn’t wait at the hospital for our break but instead our driver felt like getting some rogalach. I guess he was having a hungry day. Although nothing really special happened what made this shift so great were the people. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much during a shift date and I really liked having a female as the second medic. She was maybe a year older than us, doing her National Service through מד''א-MDA so the three of us girls just talked all day with our driver laughing at us the entire time. It was a great day. Unfortunately I woke up from my ‘short’ post shift nap about 5hrs later than I wanted to, so once again I don’t think I’ll be sleeping well before tomorrow’s morning shift. I’m starting to think if I’ll ever have a normal sleep schedule again after this program.

A Visit to Jail

Wednesday, July-14-10

Last night was one of my best shifts of the summer so far. I’ve learned that your driver can either make or break your shift and last night I was with two of my favourites, the same driver mentioned in ‘Is the Whole Team Here? – כל הצוות פה?’ and another medic who I hadn't actually been with yet but who I’ve met before and is always so friendly at the station. Our first call turned out to be one of my most interesting calls yet. It was to police station and we weren’t really told what was for. We arrived and one of the guards took us through the back halls of the station to the cells/holding area and let me say this is nothing like the front of the station. It is beyond gross here, no air conditioning and it stinks of urine. We get to the back and there is a man sitting in a chair in apparent distress. He is breathing fast, sweating, and saying that he has stabbing chest pains. I take his blood pressure and expect it to high but it turns out to be normal. After we open the oxygen our driver decides to call for a נט''ן-Natan (ICU ambulance) and then whispers to us, ‘it’s an HY”. It took me a minute to realise that HY referred to hyperventilation, but then I understood. He was just making a performance to get out of jail for the night. Finally the נט''ן-Natan came and decided to take him to the hospital to be safe. Now the policemen are getting really frustrated that now they have to accompany him to the hospital and one of them says, “why are you taking him, he’s a rapist, and raped someone today”. After I heard that all I could think was that I’m just so relieved I didn’t know that before. They tell us that we’re supposed to treat everybody equally, but I’m not so sure I could have. Maybe if he was truly having a heart attack, but after that call felt kind of guilty, like we had helped him get a night out of jail and there is someone with their world torn apart because of what this guy did to them. It was definitely a situation I will remember.

After that call we got our next right away. It was to the side of the road for a man who was not feeling well. He must of being a regular because he just knew to just hop in the back. He tells us he took some sort of drugs that morning and wanted to go to the hospital. So we take him and when he finds out that he won’t be getting a bed he decides to leave and walks off. Although that call was pretty pointless we did see our rapist from before and yep, he looked just fine without oxygen or any IVs surrounded by his guards. We finally got to go back to the station and within 20min we get another call. An 80 y/o man who’s feeling weak. Not exactly the kind of call we were too happy to be woken up for but we go. And then we’re half way there and of course it got cancelled, i.e. now we have time to get our middle of the night shwarma, it was sweet. In the middle of eating our shwarma we get our next call, a drunk who’s passed out on the side of the road. Drive by, wake him up, ask if he wants to go to the hospital and when he says no we get out of there. That call was more of a bother, like couldn’t the 6 people standing around him have woken him up? Anyways now we are really looking forward to maybe getting some sleep at the station when we get yet another call. This one is for a young woman who is having a migraine and had been throwing up. I felt bad for her especially because there wasn’t really anything we could do besides turn off the ambulance light and take her to the hospital. Now the sun is beginning to rise and we have barely been back to the station all night when we get our final call. It’s all the way in Ramat Gan to help another team carry a lady down the stairs. It was quick and we got back to the station in perfect timing for the shift to end.

This was probably my busiest/sleepless overnight shift, but they drivers made it so much fun so it didn’t matter. I guess I was really tired after these past 3 shifts in 2 days because when I got home I slept from 8am-5pm, the longest I’ve slept after any overnight shift. This evening all of us in Tel Aviv met as usual to make up our schedule for next week and the program coordinators came to visit and see how things have been going. Now I have no idea how I’m going to be able to sleep tonight before tomorrow’s morning shift, but now that we’re getting down to our last 2 weeks or so I’m trying to get in as many shifts as possible.

Do You Speak English?

Tuesday, July-13-10

At home I actually had more time than I expected to relax before my night shift. I took my time, had a nap, showered, and ate and then headed back to the station at about 10:15pm. I find arriving to a night shift so much nicer compared to the morning shifts. There are so many less people and no confusion. My chul partner and I were immediately told our driver and ambulance number and it was just going to be the three of us, my favourite combination by far. The driver was a really chill guy who I’ve had before so that’s always nice and it turned out to be my quietest night so far. We had just two calls. Both were for severe stomach pains where we just transferred to the patients to the hospital. The first patient was an oleh hadasha (new immigrant) so we got to feel especially helpful since our driver barely spoken any English. The second patient was a man who was clearly in a lot of pain and again I felt kind of helpless since there wasn’t really anything we could do besides get him to the hospital. We got back to the station at about 3am and didn't get another call all shift. Not even the expected call between 6-7am, before the morning shift is ready to go, which in my experience has always happened. Even though I basically had all day off I didn’t get up too much and I am basically just waiting around to go back to my station for tonight’s overnight. I guess the schedule didn’t really work out in my favour this week but I don’t mind. I just want lots of call and the beach can wait a bit until my week off before I leave.

Mazeh

Monday, July-12-10

Yesterday morning’s shift began as disorganised as usual. Apparently too many people showed up for the shift so after some shuffling around it was decided that a Mazeh (another Tel Aviv station) ambulance was going to come by and pick me up after their call. I thought I’d be waiting around forever but within 20min they showed up. To my pleasant surprise I was going to be with two other Chulnikim (from the overseas program) along with a driver who I’d heard really good things about. The morning was off to a good start. Our first call was for an elderly man who had fainted in the bathroom for an unknown reason. It was a simple transfer to the hospital and as soon as we left the hospital we got our next call to a car accident. A van had rear-ended a taxi with a young woman inside. No one was hurt badly but we took the woman to Ichilov as she was complaining some neck and shoulder pain. We ‘backboarded’ her as a precaution and I use quotations because well it wasn’t exactly the kind of backboarding we learned in class. Just a neckbrace and the board with no straps, but it worked and she was a good sport even saying that it was fun to be pushed on the stretcher. Next was a moped accident (they are extremely popular in Israel) where a man had badly broken his ankle. It was a relatively easy call but it was a little unpleasant to be with him in the back when he was in so much pain and all we could really do was put ice on it (and the ride to the hospital isn’t exactly so smooth). This was turning out to be quite a busy day and we were only back at the station once. In the afternoon we had another accident involving a pedestrian who got hit by either a car or a moped, I’m not exactly sure. He didn’t have any obvious injuries but was saying that his shins/knees were extremely painful, a pretty typical injury for someone who was been hit by a vehicle. We got him to the hospital and now he was grimacing in pain anytime someone went to touch his legs. After, we left him with the doctors and got our last call of the day, a CVA (stroke). It was an elderly man who presented with left side weakness. Gave oxygen and got him to the hospital quickly. While we were chilling outside waiting for our 20min beak to be up we see our last patient, the guy with shin/pain walking out of the hospital and it’s not even an hour and a half later. He yells thank you to us and continues on, so much for all the drama.

That would be the end of that shift and I really enjoyed it. The entire day we had good calls. Nothing beyond epic, but nothing too monotonous either. When got back to the Mazeh station and now I realized that I’ve never been here before and did know exactly how to get home. I walked up to the main intersection expecting to have to take 2+ buses and I see the sign for the 26, the bus that takes me directly home. It was sweet. I had been avoiding doing shifts here because I thought it was too far/hard to get too but after today I’m for sure going to end that. I even think it this station is busier than Bazel/Tachana (the main station) but that could have just been the particular day.

6 Weeks In

Sunday, July-11-10

Today I had the day off which meant an extra day to my weekend. Sounds pretty sweet, and it was, but it does mean that now I will be doing my 5 shifts/week in four days as oppose to five. Anyways, the weekend was really chill and fun. Went out, spent some time on the beach, slept in, did laundry, bought groceries, and of course watched the soccer. I’m really enjoying the non-tourist side of being in Israel and not trying to think of the next epic adventure. Everyday life has been just as fun, if not more and I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. Today I also made use of something that I’m not sure we have at home (I could be wrong). I went grocery shopping and while paying I asked for a mishloach. Basically they loaded up my groceries into bins and said they would deliver them within the hour, and they did! For no extra charge. It was awesome and I will definitely be doing that again. Tonight I also ran to the beach entrance nearest to me to watch the sun set and there are some pictures below. I was amazed at the amount of people out biking, running, and walking on the טיילת-tayelet (translates to promenage?). There were so many! Especially for it being a weekday (Sunday is the first day of the week here). Israel may not have gotten the message on smoking just yet, but when it comes to exercising I am impressed.

I think I’ll be heading to bed early tonight since tomorrow morning I have the first of my 3 shifts in two days and 2 of them are night shifts. The מד''א-MDA employees may be used to doing 2 shifts with only 1 shift break in between but me, not so much. I still don’t know how I’m going to manage to get home from the morning shift, eat, maybe sleep, and shower, and be back for 11pm and ready to work the night. Should be interesting and hopefully I’ll get a lot of calls. Tomorrow will also mark 6 weeks into my trip which means I’m just over half way through. It still seems unreal that I’m actually here and I smile every time I think of just exactly where I am in the world.

p.s. Not the clearest day in Tel Aviv but gorgeous none the less.

איזה בלגן שם-Azeh Balagan Sham

Friday, July-09-10

For those reading who didn’t understand the title of this entry, let me explain. It translates to, “What a Mess There,” I guess the saying works better in Hebrew. But that is exactly what the station was like for me today. We got there and it started out as most morning shifts do, waiting outside for the girl who is in charge of assigning us to drivers for each morning shift. Each morning shift there are two regular ambulances for Tel Aviv and one for Yafo. She came out and told us that we could either both go with the first Ragile, who’s driver was ‘E’ or one of us good also choose to go to Yafo. When we asked about the second Ragile she said she was with him and kind of moved past the topic quickly. Anyways, it seemed like it was going to work. The Yafo driver headed off to the satellite station with another medic & volunteer and we waited for ‘E’ who apparently hadn’t selected an ambulance for the day yet. All was good. Then the coordinator girl and the driver of the second Ragile walk by. My shift partner for the day recognized the driver from a previous shift and asked if he had room for her. He paused for a minute (I assume he was counting how many spots he had) turned to the coordinator girl and agreed. Meanwhile I stayed back waiting for ‘E’ to show up, since I assumed they were already four, wasn’t a big deal. Now it’s an hour after the shift began so I go and ask the dispatcher where she was. He tells me that she is scheduled to be on the נט''ן-natan (ICU unit) and isn’t a driving a Ragile today but ‘A’ is, and he is still not here so I should wait for him. Fine so I do. ‘A’ finally showed up and it turns out I had met him before. I say that I think I’m with him and he says, no it can’t be, I’m full but I’ll check for you. We both go in to chat to the dispatcher and they now tell me I was for sure supposed to go with the first driver, it said so right on the schedule! Turns out this coordinator girl wanted to be with this driver alone and tried to ‘guard’ the spots on the ambulance. Haha to her that my Mda Chul partner ruined her plans. Had it been anyone else but her, she would have most definitely put both of us with him from the start, like she usually did. So now they are gone and who knows when they’ll be back. It’s just past 9am and I am pissed off. No one seems to care about wasting my time, so I leave. I headed down to Nachlat Binyamin and the Shuk (market) just like I had planned to after my shift anyways and then went to Dizengoff Centre after for some shopping. It ended up being a really nice morning/afternoon and I was pretty proud of myself that I knew which two bus routes to combine to get home. I certainly know the city much better compared to the last time I was here. What sucks is that it turns out that the coordinator girl bailed halfway through the shift so it just ended up being the one volunteer and the driver. Not only was there room but they could have actually needed me. I’m still not impressed with her and my volunteer coordinator will definitely be getting a call, but it was nice to be out and about on a Friday afternoon before everything closes for Shabbas, there is just nothing like it anywhere else. Below is a pair of pictures from Nachlat Binyamin and the Shuk.

First Impressions

Thursday, July-08-10

Yesterday’s night shift started off pretty normally. We arrived 15min early, called into the dispatch office and found out our driver’s name and ambulance number. We walked back outside and meet our driver who was sitting outside on the bench with some others. We introduce ourselves; he says his name and tells us we are waiting for one other. Okay, so we wait. Then someone comes out from dispatch and tells our driver that the other person isn’t coming. Our driver actually freaks outs and starts arguing back to this guy, and I translate, “No—this cannot be! Just me and those two, I’m going to ask!” and he gets up and goes inside. This was probably one of the most shocking moments I’ve had at מד''א-MD’’A so far. We were sitting on the same bench as him, and he knew we spoke/understood Hebrew from meeting us not 10min before and he’s talking about us like we are not there. Anyways, he comes out and says to the man, “yes, it is just me and them” and then the two of them start trying to call someone else to come in but no one can. I don’t know if it was because we were going to be two girls alone with him or if it was because we were only volunteers but he evidently had some problem with us. The two of us just looked at each other thinking wow this is going to be a long shift. We wait around for about an hour and then we get our first call. It’s a non-urgent call for a women who is feeling crappy due to side effects of a pill she took. I didn’t understand completely, but her two children were full out yelling at each other. The one blaming the other, saying he told her not to take it that morning and now they are wasting his time. It was quite the atmosphere in that apartment. I also didn’t realise at the time but we were already at the outskirts of Tel Aviv and then she requested to go to a hospital in Petah Tikva. We get there hand her over and head back to ambulance. All of a sudden our driver has done a complete 180. I guess we proved ourselves or something during that call because now he was friendly and talkative as opposed to the complete silence at the start of the call. That was such a relief. Now we head out and get a call from Petah Tikva dispatch. It’s for a male, unconscious lying on a road. We get to outside a fenced in courtyard and two bystanders wave us over and point to what looks like a man lying inside, not moving at all. Our driver jumps the fence gets to the patient and just begins laughing and proceeds to pick up this giant doll that is fully dressed. It was hilarious and the people who had called it in just couldn’t believe it. We headed back to our station in Tel Aviv and watched some TV, chatted, and slept a bit until we got our next call at 4:00am. We don’t even make it to the end of the road before dispatched radioed over that it was cancelled. Drove around the block, parked, and headed right back to sleep. By this time I guess I was really tired because the next thing I knew it was already just after 6:00am and we had another call. ‘Unconscious’ male at the נמל-namal (port). We get to the scene and our driver easily wakes up this guy, so much for unconscious. It was obvious that he has just passed out after a night of drinking. We couldn’t really communicate with him since he only spoke German (a tourist I’m guessing) but he didn’t need an ambulance and walked off. To where, I have no idea I don’t even think he knew where he was. That would be the end of what was quite a quite shift. I was really glad the driver worked out in the end and I'd even like to have him again. I’m also learning to actually sleep on night shifts as opposed to waiting for calls and thinking I won’t wake up so I was much less tired and didn’t end up sleeping near as late into the next day as I have been. This is good too because I’ll be able to get to sleep for my morning shift at a descent time for once. Since tomorrow’s Friday, I think it will be a fairly busy shift and then I’m planning to head down to Nahclat Binyamin—the artist market here that is only open on Tuesday and Fridays. I’ve been meaning to get there for the last month so hopefully my shift doesn’t run too late.

Glorified Taxi Service

Tuesday, July-06-10

So about that life saving I thought would be happening during my shifts. Yeah...today not so much. Today was just one of those shifts that felt as if I was more a part of a of a taxi company than Magen David Adom. One of those shifts where I found myself waiting and waiting for that one call that was going to make my day and it just never came. Our first came in really soon after arriving, which made me think the day was off to a good start. It was a car accident but once we arrived we were told no one needed an ambulance and of course the two cars involved ended up leaving before us...paperwork of course. We then returned to the station where we waited a good 2hrs for another call. After having woken up at 5:45am and not doing much of anything all morning I was very ready to head out. It was for a woman, 83y/o who had fallen. We arrive and she tells us the she isn’t hurt, doesn’t want/need to go to the hospital but wants help getting back into her chair. We pick her up and immediately the smell hits. She has poo-ed herself and neither her or her caregiver seemed to mind and tell us to just place in her chair as is. Okay, so we do and then let’s just say we got out of there as fast as we politely could and completed the rest of the paperwork outside. Already not such a good start to the morning. By now it was around 11am so it wasn’t surprising that we received our next call before making it back to the station. An elderly lady who isn't feeling well. Upon doing her vitals we discover that her BP is 200/110, which is just too high. Our driver who happened to be a paramedic explains that he wants to take her to the hospital and she flat out refuses. Why? She just doesn’t like hospitals and won’t go, she thought that by calling an ambulance a doctor would come and check/treat her at home. Surprisingly many people believe that this is true. Well she won’t go to the hospital and our driver doesn’t feel comfortable leaving so he decides to call for the נט''ן-Natan (ICU ambulance) which can administer drugs. By the time they arrive it’s been 1.5hrs since the call began and we haven’t done much besides take her BP and try to convince her to go to the hospital. When they arrive we happily hand her over and left. Immediately after leaving we got our next call. It was emergency status to a hotel for a man with a very fast heartrate. We get there and ask the front desk and no one knows anything! We call dispatch and they call the patient who confirms that we are at the right hotel. Somehow they didn't have the right room number or something like that, I have no idea what happened but after about 20min of phoning back and forth, the ICU team arrived before we even saw the patient (it was called automatically due to the nature of the call) and we left without having even put on our gloves. We headed back to the station and before we make it there we get our next call. It was actually a pretty busy day, just not much treating happened at all. This call was another elderly lady and a simple transfer to the hospital. What should have taken maybe 20min took us 1hr at least. Our driver was in slow motion! Everything he did, from loading into the ambulance, driving, parking, checking the GPS, etc. he did so so slowly, and I was getting impatient. Finally we got her to Ichilov and had or first break of the day. Just being at a patient's place for so long doing well, not much is actually quite taxing. By now it’s around 2:15pm we haven’t done much beside wait around most of the day. Our final call of the day was non-emergency status. It was for a man, age 63 who had severe liver sclerosis and and hadn't been taken his meds. I don’t think he was 100% with it. Again our driver took his time, even stopping to have a cigarette between putting the patient in the ambulance and walking around to the driver’s seat, it was ridiculous. This man ended up vomiting in the ambulance too, which made for a great end to this dreadful shift. Although the driver was a nice guy, I don’t think I’ll choose to work with him again if I can help it. He was just much to slow and very unenthusiastic, which made for a very long day. Tomorrow I’m working the overnight shift (11pm start) so once again I get a weekday for the beach. In the evening all of us from the Tel Aviv stations are getting together again for dinner and to make next week`s schedule. I just hope tomorrow night I get a break from the transfers and get an exhilarating call.

A Cigarette for Breakfast?

Monday, July-05-10

Last night I had my first regular night shift and I really enjoyed it. Only having to go in at 11pm gave me an extra day to the weekend which meant I got to redeem my missed day at the beach and get some much need groceries. From the moment the shift started I knew it was going to be very chill. There were only 6 of us at the station, two teams of 3 (1 Regile and 1 Natan-ICU unit) which made it feel kind of homey. My first call came within 15min of the shift’s start. It was a regular call (non-urgent) to an elderly lady who had been vomiting for the last few hours, my first vomit encounter of the summer. We arrived and yep...it was all over the floor, fantastic. At least she didn’t throw-up in the ambulance, that being once we finally got into the ambulance. This family was probably the most dysfunctional family I have met thus far. No one could agree on anything—whether an ambulance should have been called in the first place, what hospital they should go to, who should get to ride with her, etc. By the time we actually got to Ichilov it was well over an hour and a bit later. Normally once you arrive at a hospital dispatch gives you 20-30min to transfer your patient, complete the paperwork, and of course have a cigarette. This time however our break was cut short, probably since there are fewer ambulances on call overnight. Our next call was to Shuk HaCarmel (the outdoor market), where apparently there was a fight. We got there and just after the police and there was actually no one there to be seen/treated. Not at all surprising, but the Shuk was neat to see at night with everything put away and locked as opposed to during the day when it’s packed with people. Next was a call which I name a homeless check. Some see a homeless person sleeping on the ground, assumes they are dead and calls in the ‘emergency’. We get there, the man is just fine and we leave. Now it’s about 2:30am and we were headed back to the station for the first time since the shift began when we get our next call. There was a fight at one of the bars at the namal (port) and dispatch tells us that it’s a head stabbing! We race there and arrive to a male (20-25y/o) who is lying on the ground, obviously very drunk, and covered in blood. He is conscious, but very out of it/drunk so we load him up quickly, clean off the wound (about 1.5inches long just inside his front hairline), bandage it up, and get him to the hospital fast. This time we get our full 20-30min at the hospital but spend most of it clean the blood off the ambulance and stretcher. I’m content though, at least it wasn’t a transfer and there was some action to keep me awake tonight. We returned back to the station at about 3:30-4am and we didn’t get another call until 6am. It was nice to get a break since I was now pretty tired, but I didn’t really sleep since I was always listening for the next call over the speakers-it’s kind of hard to hear and the drivers have personal beepers. At 6am we got our last call of the shift. It was a young adult male whose nose had begun bleeding the evening before and just never stopped. I would have never expected there to be more blood from a nose bleed than the head stab, but I was wrong. We get him to the hospital and waited there long enough to insure that that would be our last call. Almost every time we are just waiting outside the emergency entrance everyone always has a cigarette. The paramedics/medics, doctors, nurses, and even patients still hooked up to IV’s all smoke, even at 2,3, 6 o’clock in the morning! I think I get offered a cigarette at least 2 times per shift, and no I don’t smoke. In fact I may be wrong, but I don’t think I have yet to work with a driver that hasn’t been a smoker. I guess Israel hasn’t gotten the message yet, but it’s quite something to see healthcare workers all smoking, I will definitely have to try and get a picture. Anyways, we returned back to the station and after a quick hello to the morning shift I went home a fell straight to sleep. I actually really enjoyed the overnight more than I thought I would. The atmosphere was completely different to during the day and it was just busy enough. Everyone was relaxed, the roads were clear (we didn’t have to drive with sirens blaring) and the ER was nice and quiet and not packed for once. This afternoon I ended up sleeping for way to long as usual and now I’m in the predicament where I am working the morning shift tomorrow (7am) but am not tired at all. Ah well, it will give me some time to research my courses for next year, which I can begin to select tomorrow.

Coke and Cheesecake for Dinner

Saturday, July-03-10

Today I had the day off like most Saturdays. An old friend of my dad’s from SA took me out to lunch and I got to meet him and his family for the first time. I thought it may have been awkward, but it wasn’t at all and I think I will be seeing them again before I leave. Unfortunately lunch did take up most of the afternoon and I didn’t get to the beach. Instead we had a friend over and watched the World Cup games this evening, with Hebrew commentary and all. I don’t know why but I find the Israeli commentary so funny to listen to, it’s actually hilarious. For dinner we decided to take advantage of the food delivery options there are here. Perhaps it’s because more people do not have their own cars, but I find many more restaurants deliver compared to at home. We went for pasta and how do I put this, we got a bowl of oil with floating noodles. Needless to say we won’t be ordering from them again but at least the complimentary desert and coke made for an awesome dinner. Really need to get to grocery shopping soon. At least I’m doing the Layla shift tomorrow which starts at 11pm so I will get a chance to redeem my missed day at the beach. That’s all I believe a pretty slow and relaxing weekend, hopefully I will get some exciting calls this week.

The Double Shift

Thursday/Friday, July-1/2-2010

So it is now about 12hrs after my first double shift ended and well I ended up sleeping for well over half of them. Here’s my not so brief recap, a lot happens in 16hrs! We started at 3pm and met an awesome driver. It was also only us with the driver which I have found to be the most enjoyable combination since then there not so much of a hierarchy going on the entire shift. We get our first call which is probably the earliest I’ve ever got a call within starting a shift. It’s a נסיעה רגילה-nesiya regila (regular/non emergency call). Patient is a 30y/o man who hasn’t been feeling well lately, simple hospital transfer. What I liked about this call was that he was an Oleh Chadash – new immigrant so when he ask if we spoke English our driver turned to us and I actually felt very useful. After that we returned back to the station and wow, we were there forever. This shift was so slow! 2.5 hrs would go by before we got our next call. Finally we are called, and dispatch tells us emergency status so we go sirens and all. We are almost there and then we get cancelled! So annoying. We turn around and begin heading back and when we get another emergency call, pretty nearby. Then that call is cancelled too! About 2min after that cancel we get another call and then that one is cancelled as well. This was beyond frustrating, 3 cancelled ‘emergencies’ in about 10-15min. Finally we get a ‘real’ call. A passerby called 101 because a lady was sitting on the curb with her head down in her lap. We get to this ‘emergency’ and the lady is drunk but coherent enough to clearly state that she didn’t want to go to the hospital. Couldn’t this passerby tried to ask her first? I guess not. By this time the sun has set and we get our first Layla Lavan call. Dispatch reads a head trauma. Finally a proper call. We arrive to a pretty fancy outdoor event and someone has tripped and fallen over a cable and is just fine. Basically a liability call and we out of there within 5min. Now it ’s about 10pm and I am bored, hungry, and frustrated. Great position to be in about to head into another shift, but at least our driver is awesome and that really makes a big difference. Next, we are called to the נמל –Namal (port) for two people that have fallen. We get to the first and it’s meet a sweet middle age woman who has tripped over something and has a massive laceration on her lower leg. She didn’t even realise how big it was since it was so dark and I don’t think she wanted to look. Once we got our flash light and peeled off the bandage all we see in blood. The driver cleans some of it away, reveals the cut and we can see her bone! He wraps it up and the two of us take her to the ambulance while they go off to find the other patient. She is an elderly lady who had fallen and probably broken her hip. By this time another ambulance is there and they take her and we are off to Ichilov. We leave Ichilov at about 10:45pm and head to the station since our shift ends in 15min and we have to meet our new driver. Just then we get another emergency call, which of course only after we arrive to the scene gets cancelled. Great, now we are late for our next shift for no good reason.

Part II – לילה לבן-Layla Lavan (White Night)
Being 11:30pm of course we have missed the driver change and no ambulances to be found at the station. We are told by dispatch to wait and that an ambulance is bound to return sometime soon. So we waited…for 2hrs, and nothing. This was so frustrating, because obviously the reason they couldn’t come back to get us was because they had so many calls—which we should have been on! So we decide to take an adventure to Ichilov and meet an ambulance there, we wanted to get on an ambulance tonight! Get there and almost immediately a paramedic says, “are you two the chulnikiyot?” He tells us to call dispatch immediately so we do, and they tell us and that a driver has been alone and coming to pick us up now. Sweet! Within 2min of hanging up the phone our ambulance pulls in with sirens blaring and says to jump in, we have a call! We hop in and meet our new driver, who was beyond awesome and so far my favourite. He is one of the first drivers who I found who actually drives to every emergency call in true emergency fashion and doesn’t waste time everywhere. Between then, about 1:30am and 5:30am we had continuous calls. We actually only took one man to the hospital, who had been hit with two beer bottles and had huge head and leg lacerations. The rest of them we would arrive, the patients would decide to go to the hospital on their own or they would be drunk checks. Typical Layla Lavan calls, nothing epic at all (although we had hoped), but it was an experience in itself just trying to drive around the city with thousands of people in the streets and seeing the sun rise. At 6am we were back in the station and get our last call. A car accident on the highway. We take a man to the hospital with a broken hand and wait there long enough to insure that that would be our last call.

Finally headed home and fell straight asleep. I’m not sure that I will be doing a double shift again anytime soon but I have been told that a regular night shift is much easier since you get to sleep between fewer calls. I guess I’ll see for myself since I have two overnights next week. Just below is a video of how it's sometimes like to drive in an ambulance in Israel. Even with siren blaring most of the time we get very little reaction from the drivers and find that we are the ones have to maneuver around like mad-definitely different from Canada. Enjoy your weekends!

7 Garbage Bags Later

Wednesday, June-30-10

Loved every minute of today’s day off. I think I’m going to try and keep Wednesday’s off from now on, it was really nice to get a break mid-week. Today I slept in, stayed in my pjs for much too long, and instead of going to the beach, the apartment got a much needed clean (re. the name of this entry). This evening the Tel-Aviv Chulniks all came over and we hung out, ate dinner, and made our schedule for the week to come. It was really nice to have people to share our calls with and to see everyone someplace other than outside Ichilov’s Emergency Room. Tomorrow at 3pm I begin my first double shift. It will definitely be an experience and hopefully I will get some interesting calls because it will be Layla Lavan (White Night) here in Tel-Aviv. I’m not really sure the reason behind it but tomorrow night stores, restaurants, bars, & clubs will be open all through the night as well as outdoor performances throughout the city. All I know is that there are going to be a lot of people, many of them drunk and that it should be a shift to remember. Hopefully it holds up to its name and by 7am on Friday I’ll have some awesome stories to add to my collection-that is considering I make it to the end of the shift still awake.