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.