Last Day

(Aryeh, Emily, Anas and I)
Well it is the last day. My focus for the day was enjoying the time with everyone so I wasn't as concerned about having the perfect calls or anything like that. Don't get me wrong, I would be happy to have some good calls if they came.






(Fizee and I)
The day started with the service call to the bank and post office. Yesterday I thought that was where we were going when we took the station worker home after they weren't feeling good. So I still had some of my exaggerated excitement I had from yesterday.






(Shochi and I)
The second call was to a woman who had started medicine that lowered her blood pressure and she hadn't had anything to eat or drink and subsequently fainted. We were met by two little boys to show us where to go. There was some discussion between the patient, her husband and the medic about what they were going to do. We could take her to the hospital in the ambulance but it wouldn't be with lights and sirens, just a regular drive and so it wouldn't be all that different than going in their own car to the hospital. They eventually decided to have us transport her.

The next call was to a worker who had fallen off the side of a work truck. We backboarded him and took him to the hospital.

Our last call of our MDA experience was to a car accident in a nearby village. When we got on scene there was a lot of people milling around. We got the patient into the chair and loaded her into the back of the ambulance. The woman's young child was handed to her and they both road in the back of the ambulance. They both seemed okay and we transferred them to a very busy ER.

Back to the station for goodbyes and some pictures.

Well it is at this point that I want to thank all of my readers and to thank all the wonderful people I have met this summer. What an adventure!

I'll be spending my last few days in Jerusalem before flying home.






It's been amazing!

Yom Rishon

(MDA Hip Hop Crew)

Yom Rishon. Sunday. The day after Shabbat when all the things which were bothering you on Shabbat you would now want to go to the hospital for. Suppose to be a busy day. Nope. Snoozer.

First call was to a chicken packaging plant. The smell was bad enough with the brief whiffs coming through the window as we were trying to find exactly where in the complex we were needed. The call was for a fainting. I don't blame them with all the stench and everything. We finally talked with someone who let us know that the patient had been taken to the hospital already by their boss. I can't say I was too sad about not having to get out and work in that pleasant stench.

The next time out was taking home one of the MDA station workers who wasn't feeling good. Keeping with good protocol we take their blood pressure on the way. It's okay. Drop them off and it is back to the station.


The rest of the shift is filled with some sleep, chatting with Anas, playing chess with Anas (he won) and watching an episode and a half of Grey's Anatomy (I might be hooked now). At the end of our shift someone is brought to the station with an ankle injury. After it was bandaged we took them to the hospital.

Even though it was right at the end of the shift it worked out well because I got to go on one more call with Samech. And give Samech and Anas their gifts. I had these t-shirts made with a tricked out MDA ambulance on the front and on the back in Hebrew it said "MDA Hip Hop Crew" in honor of our epic EMS inspired dance party. Pictures were taken. And as an added bonus Or, one of my favorite local volunteer (okay probably my favorite) was starting a shift so I got to say hello, take a picture with her and then say a proper see you later (she said something about see you in heaven but that seemed ominous or like she was going to kill me).


So not an exciting call day but well worth it for the people I got to see and spend time with.

First Time Driver

Last night we had a closing ceremony in Jerusalem in which our class, MDA 105 and the current class, MDA 106, who is still in their training were invited for a night of speeches and free stuff. MDA 105 got framed certificates, MDA pins, hats and backpacks. It was a great time to see other volunteers and swap stories. I found that being at one of the smaller stations had a lot of privileges others didn't. I'm able to get to know the drivers, work regularly on an Atan, work 5 shifts a week and the morning shifts have been set aside for our program volunteers. I heard that this was not the case with many of the other stations. So what I give up in having less calls each day, I more than gain in the perks of a small station. After the ceremony we made our way back to the train station in Tel Aviv. On the highway just outside of Jerusalem there was a multi-car accident which was slowing down traffic. We mused about if we should all unload from the bus and see if we could be of some help. You just get this itch when you see something like that. You want to go and help. When we were going by it looked like the MDA units on scene had it taken care of, we even saw the guy pictured above working the scene. Once in Tel Aviv we had sometime to get food and then catch the last train to Akko and arrived about 1:30am. By the time I got home and got ready for today it had to have been after 2am.

The 5:21am wake up call was a little too close to the 2am going to bed time so when I met Emily at the bus station I told her no calls until 10am. When we got to the station a driver was sleeping in the volunteer room so we took our queue and found our own sleeping spots, Emily on a couch and me on a thin mattress on the ground. I got my wish of no calls until after 10am. The first call on the Atan ended up getting canceled before we left the parking spot. I then settled in and read for awhile as Emily went on a variety of calls on the Ragil. Finally after lunch a Ragil call came in while Emily and the other Ragil crew were out so our crew was off to a clinic, that I had been to before, to pick up a middle aged guy who was in some pain from some kind of surgery. All we could do for him was give him some oxygen and get him to the hospital in Haifa as fast as possible. The best part of the call was when I had been instructed to get a hospital bed from one side of the ER and bring it through a narrow office area to the other side so we could transfer our patient. I hadn't really ever wielded a hospital bed like this and it was a very narrow space. I wasn't doing too bad until BAM! I just rock the edge of a desk someone was working at. I think the impact was hard enough to actually move the desk a little bit. Mercifully a hospital worker took the side I slammed into the desk and helped me guide it past the rest of the work station. Slicha guys, first time driver coming through. :)

Nothing

Well I wanted to make the title my only post for the day but it isn't exactly true. I had one call, we unloaded everything. Took it to the third floor only to find out they didn't want to go to the hospital and said they tried to cancel the call before we got there. So we went back down and loaded up and was back off to the station.

The rest of the day was spent reading Three Cups of Tea, we got no other calla on the Atan for the entire day. Ah, emergency medicine, you are a fickle person.

Tomorrow I'll be traveling to Tel Aviv and then Jerusalem for the MDA ceremony in Jerusalem. Emily will be presenting a speech.

Low Pulse Rate

Today I was on the Atan with Aryeh, it was the first time back on the Atan in a couple of days. Our first call brought us to apartments with no elevator (I now look at the apartments as we arrive to try and judge if they will have an elevator or not). Up a few flights of stairs we find the patient, an older lady sitting in a chair in the living room. After hooking up all the monitors and the paramedic doing some treatment we load her up on the chair and carry her down the stairs and get her into the bed. The paramedic had to take blood pressure manually a few times because of the ladies low pulse rate. We got her to the hospital and transferred her.

Our next call was to a local shopping center and after having some difficulties finding the location we were suppose to be at, we find a man who was suffering from chest pain. Monitors got hooked up and we take him down to the ambulance and take him to the hospital. At the hospital it seems it has been a very busy day in the ER because we wait awhile for a bed, another MDA unit arrives with their patient and they start the wait as well. After a bed opens up we transfer the patient and take our leave.

We get a call down to one of the tent cities that has sprung up even in Akko. The patient is visibly in pain but he refuses treatment. So after some attempts at persuading him otherwise he continues to refuse treatment so the paramedic prints up the refuse treatment paperwork and has the man sign it. If a patient refuses treatment there really isn't much we can do other than try to pursued them. The only exceptions are if they are in an altered state of consciousness then there is some wiggle room. So we were on our way.

Our last call of the day was to a car accident. It did not appear anyone was seriously hurt. Both patients walked onto the ambulance and we took their blood pressure and were able to meet a Ragil to transfer them. It is a very nice benefit of being on the Atan, sometimes we can transfer the patients who are not in serious condition so the Atan can stay available. It also means we are spared the long trip to the hospital and possible wait for a bed to open up.

Yom Rishon (Sunday)

Well it ended up, as what i have heard is a pretty common phenomenon, a very busy Yom Rishon. I showed up in the morning and both Shai and Or (two local volunteers) were there. I talked with Or a little bit and watched many local youth volunteers show up for a weeklong training in central Israel. They showed up with their bags packed for the week, you could see the different personalities in the amount of luggage they brought, some a rather large amount of stuff for a week, others a backpack and roller bag. It was right around 8am that the first call came in and I went out on the Ragil with Anas and Yaccov.

The first call was to a fainting. When we arrived at what looked like a warehouse, we walked into an office where a man was laying on the ground with his legs propped up (in proper treatment for shock). I took the man's blood pressure and it looked good. There was some back and forth between the man and Yaccov about going to the hospital but eventually with some help we got the man into the bed and loaded in the ambulance. Blood sugar was taken, again in the okay range and so we transported the patient to the hospital.

The next call took us out to a village somewhere between Akko and Karmi'el. We were called to pick up a boy at a clinic that had abdominal pain. So after loading him up and his parents we were off to the hospital.

After transferring the boy to the pediatric ER room (one that I didn't even know existed until this trip), we got a call for chest pain. We arrived on scene and the guy who called got on the ambulance but then there was some discussion and he said he didn't want to go to the hospital. So he got off the ambulance and we went on our way.

The next call came a little bit later. We were called to the old city of Akko for someone unconscious. When we arrived the patient was conscious but seemed to me like he was in a altered level of consciousness. We loaded him up and transported him to the hospital. When we arrived we were met by a supervisor paramedic which was doing quality checks on ambulances today. He observed what we were doing and spent sometime with Yaccov asking him some questions. After we transferred the patient and Yaccov was done with the review process we were driving back to the station where we came upon a "car accident." It was less than a finder binder and after we stopped and walked back to see what was going on, Yaccov ended up just telling them to take it off the road so they weren't in the middle of traffic.

Our next call was to someone who was threatening to hurt themselves. As we were responding to the call we heard over the radio that we were canceled. So back to the station.

When we got back I joked with Anas that we would get a call in 3 minutes because it was 2:37pm and the transition to the next shift happens at 2:45pm. So the calls right in the last few minutes are the worse because you know you're not getting back in time to leave your shift on time. About a minute later we get a call, I then continue to joke about it being on the fifth floor and all the other things that make for a horrible call. The call was for an older lady who had broken a bone a long time ago and needed to go to the hospital. It wasn't the fifth floor but it was up some flights of stairs. So we got her in the chair and carried her down the stairs. Got her in the bed and then made the slow journey to Haifa where she wanted to go. The ride was hard on her because of the pain and her daughter did her best to help alleviate it with blankets and moving positions but it is a tough thing to do on an ambulance traveling down the highway. After transferring her to the hospital we made the long journey back to Akko. We ended up getting back around 5pm. A busy but long day.

Doctor's Visit

Today was a slow day in Akko. In order to fill up the space I'll have to tell you the calls all of us got today. Emily and I were going to switch off on the Ragil, so the first call Emily took which was for the run to the bank for the deposits. Upon her return we waited and then it was my turn when the buzzer sounded for a Ragil call.

I loaded up on the Ragil with Anas and Yaccov (the volunteer coordinator for the station and a driver). We were dispatched to an apartment to take a patient from his apartment to a doctor's visit and then back home again. So we went up the two flights of stairs (unfortunately there was no elevator) with the chair used to carry people down stairs. We then radioed another ambulance to come and assist. This would be one of Aryeh's calls for the day on the Atan. With Aryeh and I as "supervisors," four guys took the handles on the four corners of the chair and carried the man down the stairs. We loaded him into the ambulance and made the short drive to the clinic. We wheel him in on the ambulance bed, fold it down into the chair and waited for his appointment for a test on the first floor. When he was done we load him back into the chair, waited and then took him to the second floor for his visit with the doctor. We waited again until the doctor's appointment was done and loaded him back into the ambulance for the drive home. The other ambulance was waiting for us at the house and we loaded up the guy in the chair. This time I get a rotation through carrying him up a flight of stairs and then I was replaced and they finished the rest of the climb. Not the most glamourous call but shows another side of the emergency medical system.

The rest of the day was filled with trying to entertain ourselves because there wasn't any other calls that we went on (Aryeh maybe had another but I don't remember). The volunteer's room was being used for a class so we hid out in the driver's room and ended up watching an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Met a local volunteer who we hadn't met before, his name is Razi. It was nice to chat with him for a little bit. Yaccov found a stash of chocolate somewhere and came to share it with us. That was pretty much our shift for the day.

Tomorrow I'm traveling to Tel Aviv for a little visit. So next blog will be Sunday. Shabbat shalom!

Pin and Music Video

(Samech and I. You can see the pin on my right lapel)

Tuesday is cleaning day at the Akko station. So Anas came in to tell us we should pretend to sleep if we didn't want to do yard work. A few moments later Samech came in to rally us for some work, even my fake snoring was not enough to keep me from some physical labor. :) We took out the garbage and swept the brick walk way around the station.

I was on the Ragil today with Samech and Anas. When I got onto the Ragil, Samech was like "Yonatan!" and proceeded to hand me a pin with an American flag, Israeli flag and the Magen David Adom symbol above it as a gift. It is a volunteer pin that American volunteers get. A very nice thing, looks very nice on the lapel of my uniform shirt. I thanked him very much and later on we took a picture (above).

Our first call was to a man who was reported as had fainted. When we arrived he was sitting with his family in front of some apartment. We loaded him on the ambulance and I took blood pressure and pulse. Vitals looked okay. At one point on the way to the hospital Anas asked me how old I thought the guy was, I guessed 60 and was surprised to hear that the patient was in his 90s. He certainly did not look so. After we transferred the patient to the hospital we stopped at a bakery and Samech and I went in to get something good to eat. I got a cinnamon roll and a chocolate baked item. Yum!

After hanging out in the station for a bit we got our next call. This time it was for a patient who looked very sick and hadn't eaten or drank anything in a few days. We loaded him up, I took blood pressure and pulse and we took him to the hospital. After transferring him to the hospital and as we waited for his family to get there to sign some papers, Samech found some rocking music on the radio, turned it up loud and we proceeded to have a little dance party. You know how you have those cheesy dance moves like the shopping cart or lawn mower where you mimic the movements of those everyday activities? Well Samech, Anas and I all were making up dance moves based on what you would do on an ambulance. For example, some of our dance moves would be titled, "Taking the pulse," "CPR (with both compressions and giving breathes)" and "Driving the ambulance," which was one of my favorites because it expanded from a motion of driving the ambulance to include putting the ambulance into drive to radioing dispatch to finally a rendition of turning on the sirens and lights. I said that we should make a music video and we could be the next YouTube sensation. Little did I know that others had beat us to the idea. Samech later on, back at the station, came and showed Emily, Anas and I the following YouTube videos:




Our music video would be closer to the second one than the first.

There was still a medic student assigned to the Atan today so only Aryeh was on the Atan, I took the first few Ragil calls but by late morning Emily was restless and took the remainder of the Ragil calls for the day. I finished my book and took a nap.

All Smiles

I was really tired this morning and so I was hoping for no calls until at least 9:30am. I even told Aryeh and Emily this and sure enough there were no Atan calls until close to 10am. Emily had a Ragil call a little bit earlier. Unfortunately for Aryeh and I the spaces on the Atan were already full with a paramedic student and a student working on becoming a driver. This left only the Ragil spot that Emily had. Aryeh decided to find another adventure for the day and I hung out to see what might happen.

A little bit later the buzzer went off for a Ragil call but Emily wasn't back so I was a little confused. I came out to see what was going on and ended up hopping in an ambulance with Shoki. After unloading some equipment that was in the ambulance we were off. We arrived and looked for our destination, a clinic. The patient was an older lady who when we asked the ladies in the clinic what her blood pressure was, had the lowest blood pressure I have seen up to this point. We transported the lady and every so often we would ask her, "hakol b'seder?" (everything okay?) She would respond with a wide smile and a laugh, "hakol b'seder." Okay, we are good then. :)

The rest of the afternoon was spent chatting with Emily and Anas.

Head Trauma

Well this morning started out with a big call. A guy was hit by a bus. When we got on scene, the paramedic went to work and I brought the bed over and collapsed it so it would be low to the ground. The medic and paramedic back boarded the man and we loaded him into the ambulance. The guy had to be intubated but didn't tolerate that very well so then an airway was put in and ventilations given. I hooked him up to the monitor and oxygen saturation monitor. With so much going on in the ambulance time flew by and we were at the hospital. The patient was taken to the intensive care unit and I went off to do some cleaning. Later on my driver said he had treated this guy before, that time it was from getting hit by a car. The driver joked that he must have a hard head.

Upon returning to the station I started to chit chat with a local volunteer named Or, which in Hebrew means light. She was talking about how her parents were on a well deserved vacation to the United States with one of their stops being Las Vegas. She also told me that she had been to Disneyworld before and Disney Paris. I told her how much my dad loved Disney. We also talked about the perception people outside of Israel have about Israel. Later we talked about education and she encouraged me to keep going to school and get my PhD. I tried to explain to her how I was done with school and my aspirations did not really call for needing a PhD. :) In between all of this we got a call to transport an oncology patient to a hospital in Haifa. We picked her up at her house, I took vitals in the ambulance on our way to the hospital. It was a long trip. Once we got to the hospital the patient insisted on being taken to a certain department and not the emergency room. After some arguing and consultation we started our odyssey to find where she wanted us to take her. Finally transferring her we went through some more paperwork filling out and started back to the station. The end of the shift for me, Or had come in early so her shift was just starting officially at 3pm.

Not too bad of a day, a good call and some delightful conversation.

For Wednesday

The draft of my blog for Wednesday got deleted so now I'll have to try and remember the calls.

I was on the Ragil and the first call was to a car accident. A bus had hit the back of a car. When we got on scene the car was quite a bit into the shoulder and facing the road. The guy was able to walk over to the bed and so he laid down and we put the necklace on. In the ambulance I was able to take blood pressure and we evacuated him to the hospital.

Another call that day was to this cute old guy. He had Mr. Magoo glasses and I had a feeling he would be one of those fun, goofy grandpas. Poor guy though got out of breath from getting up from the bed and getting into our chair. We gave him oxygen and met an Atan at a bus stop to transfer him for the ride to the hospital. We stopped for ice cream and Shoki bought me this Popsicle that was really good.

I wish I could remember any other calls but I can't. So that will be all for Wednesday. :)

Shabbat shalom (I'm writing this on Friday)

Quiet Day and Ice Cream

Today was a relatively quiet day. It was David, Emily and I at the Akko station. This was the first time I had worked with David and he certainly brings the party with him and kept us awake this morning. Emily also brought her laptop and she played some tunes while we waited for our first calls which also helped the conscience level of us all. I was going to be on the Ragil with Anas and Shoki (I'm not sure how well I've translated these names but I try).

Our first call was relatively late in the shift. We were off to transport a patient from her house to the hospital because she had been getting sick. I was able to take blood pressure and pulse on the ambulance. It is hard to hear for the blood pressure on an ambulance. Well actually it is hard in general to hear sometimes. But I've worked on trying it again and then using what's called palpation, where you use the radial pulse to find the systolic pressure. You find the radial pulse and inflate the blood pressure cuff past where you can't feel the pulse and then let out the pressure until the pulse comes back and that is the systolic pressure. Much easier to find on a moving ambulance when you are starting out.

The next call was a new one, we were to drop off the deposit of all the money people had paid for their ambulance service. We were still on call if there was an emergency but we made a stop at the bank, then the post office and finally for ice cream at this ice cream store that had a huge selection. I asked for the ice cream stop and said ani koneh (I buy) but Shoki insisted on buying anyways.

Our last call for the day was a patient with a CVA, I've forgotten what that stands for now but Anas explained it as the patient was in danger of having a rupture in the blood vessels in his brain. We quickly evacuated him to the hospital and made it back to the station just in time to be done with our shift.

Now for the last night of the Karmi'el dance festival.

Car Accident

Back to the Akko station for me. I was hoping for no calls for a little bit to get some sleep at the station in the morning. Thankfully that happened.

Emily went out on a Ragil call first and then Areyah and I went out on an Atan call just a little bit later. The first call was to a lady who I think wasn't feeling good but she didn't want to be transported so we left. On the way back to the station there was another call.

This time the call was to the first legitimate car crash I've seen so far. It was on the busy highway between Karmi'el and Akko. We had to make a u-turn at the next intersect to double back the other way to get to the crash. When we arrived a lady was sitting next to her car. I later found out that she had been carried by a medic who had stopped before we got there. She was back boarded and loaded onto the ambulance. Once on the ambulance Areyah took blood pressure and I hooked up the monitor. We got her to the hospital quickly and transferred her.

We then got our next call to a guy who I think was inebriated and there was some what of an argument between the medics and the lady who had called because the lady wanted us to take the man to the hospital but the man didn't want to go. I understood enough to know that they would ask the man, "Do you want to go to the hospital?" and he was like "no." So after a little bit of the go around with the lady wanting us to take him, the medics explaining they can't take him if he doesn't want to go, and the medics asking him if he wanted to go, we left.

Back at the station we hung out for a while and then Emily came back from her calls. She said one of the calls was a guy getting stabbed in the bum. I'm sure it was not very humorous for the guy but it is a pretty funny place for someone to stab you.

We spent much of the afternoon talking with a local volunteer who teaches classes for Magen David Adom. Her name is Avigal and she is only 18 but teaches both teenagers and adults. She was just teaching at a factory in Karmi'el the other day and she was in Akko today for the class with the younger group that I have seen her teach before.

Karmi'el station

I did a shift in the Karmi'el station today. After a quick phone call to Emily for a reminder of the code to get in. I head in and find the previous shift was still sleeping. I found Simon and hung out until it looked like the last shift had gotten up and were out of the volunteers' room. Akko has a volunteers room but usually there is no one sleeping when I get there in the morning.

Simon gave me the low down of the Karmi'el station and he put it this way, there usually isn't a call until the commute starts and then they receive many car accidents throughout the day because of the geographical area that the station covers.

I settled in for a long day of waiting for a call but the good news was there was working tv and one of the Israeli channels, channel 8, is in English with Hebrew and Russian subtitles. Most of the shows were BBC shows. So I got to watch secret millionaire but was confused by them using English pounds, I'm not really sure how much a pound is so I couldn't really gather the magnitude of the millionaires giving. I also watched Brainiac, a "science" show, which was pretty much a show about blowing stuff up and doing other silly things and call it science. I know, I know, this sounds like other "science" shows as well but this one seemed even less serious than the others.

The one call I went on was for a "car accident", when me got to the place we couldn't find the accident. Finally we found the car. It was a finder binder but the one lady wanted to be transported to the hospital and so we did. It is much longer drive to the hospital from Karmi'el than Akko. So it was a lot of time on the road. When I got back to the station I had some time to watch Mexico win the under 17 World Cup in soccer (hopefully that is a spoiler to any soccer fans that haven't watched it yet) and some other show about the FBi taking down the mob in Las Vegas years ago.

Tonight we have meet and greet with a group from Boston at our stations. Sounds like a nice social occasion for the evening and then tomorrow is the first day of the dance festival.

On the bus now from the meet and greet. It was nice to share with others the program I'm enjoying. Hope some of them decide to come back for the program.

Station?! What station?

I have a new roommate, Areyah, he switched from the station Daniel was going to and so this morning was Areyah's first shift at Akko. Our bus driver this morning was very diligent at getting us to Akko in a hurry. So even though we took the bus that usually gets us there closer to 7am, we were at the stop in front of the station at about 6:45am. Good time!

This morning there was a new local volunteer that I haven't seen before. She was full of personality and had way too much energy for so early in the morning. She convinced the paramedic of the Ragil to let her take Anas' place in the Ragil so she could go on shift. So Anas went to catch up on paper work.

Areyah went off on the first Ragil call and I rested a little bit until the buzzer for the Atan was sounded. I went out and met a new driver, Amos. Little did i know at the time that we would not make it back to the station until our shift was over. Our first was for an older lady who had some chronic illnesses and she was having some difficulties. The apartment we went to was up many flights of stairs so the Ragil was called to provide assistance. Four guys, including Areyah carried the lady down the stairs in the chair. After transferring her to the hospital we got another call on our way back to the station.

This time we were dispatched to an assisted living place and transported a lady to the hospital. I was able to use the oxygen and hook up the electrodes for the monitor. Getting to do a little bit more everyday.

The next call was way outside the city. I wasn't sure where we were going but we eventually arrived at a house where a Ragil was already there and they needed assistance in carry a child out on the chair. So after helping them we were on our way.

Next call was another transport. This time the patient was semiconscious. After I hooked him up to the monitor and hooked in the blood pressure cuff and the paramedic did a few things we just monitored until the hospital. The patient would become more alert and move around a little bit. At one point this caused the IV hose to come out of where it was attached at the arm. Some blood leaked out until we could get a cap on the end. After transferring the patient we had a little clean up to do.

Without getting back to the station we had another call. This time up some more stairs (thankfully not as many stairs as the first call). After the paramedic took vitals and looked at the EKG, things looked normal. However the patient was transported to the hospital just to be safe. This time I helped carry down the stairs. Not too bad with four people doing the work. Just tricky around the corners. After waiting for a bed in the emergency room (it was quite full), we transferred the patient. When we got outside the driver said to me, "scoop and go." Meaning it was the end of our shift and we hadn't gotten back to the station the whole time so we were going to load the bed and go. Hoping to make it back to the station without getting another call.

We did.

A busy day on the Ragil

This morning I was riding solo because Daniel moved to work at a different station in Israel and Emily took the day off to go visit some friends. When I got to the station I went with Anas to check the Ragil. We went through each part of the ambulance and checked the quality and the expiration date on each of the items. 8 airways, 2 of each kind. Check. Ambu pump. Check. Cardiopump. Check. Bandages. Check. Etc.

After checking the ambulance I settled into my bed in the volunteer room waiting for a call. No calls came in but Simon, another volunteer came in, his bus ride was a little bit of an adventure but he got here. So we both settled in for a morning nap waiting for a call. A call came in for an Atan and we decided Simon would take the Atan calls and I would take the Ragil calls. The Atan call seemed to get canceled so we went back to the waiting.

My first Ragil call was to go and assist another ambulance but on the way we were canceled. When I got back I chatted with Simon and Barak. Barak is working through a paramedic program and I met him the other day when his program was taking a practical and written exam at the station. He was really fun to talk with, we talked about education, how to raise kids and the like.

The next call was to a man who wasn't feeling well and so we took him to the hospital, later in the day we were back and we saw him again and it looked like he was getting ready to leave the hospital.

We then got back to the station and I had enough time to eat a little bit and then it was off to the next call. This time we met a car on the side of the road, the patient was feeling weak and wanted to be transported to the hospital. We transferred her after having to wait for a bed to open up in the ER, must have been a busy day. When we almost were to pull into the station we got another call. This time to what looked like an assisted living center. Once we found the location of the patient, we loaded him and what I think was a nurse from the center. She was very nice and told me not to be shy in talking to her in Hebrew. So we chatted a little bit she had been leaving in Akko for a long time and was originally from Latvia. She has a nephew who works for NASA. She was a very nice lady and I'm glad I got to meet her.

Now for my weekend.

Car accident and an automatic door accident

Got to the station this morning a little bit late because our bus driver just drove past our stop. We came to find out that we missed a call for a head injury because we were late. Bummer.

Daniel and I are the only two at Akko today because Emily is working at Karmi'el. I went on my first Ragil call which was actually all the way back to Karmi'el. There was a minor car accident (and I can't stress minor enough) and they needed us to transport one of the patients. Who was on another Ragil from Karmi'el at the car accident? Emily. Hi Emily! :)

I got to chat with one of the MDA workers who is doing his national service. His name is Anas. He thought that I was like 19, it seems like it is a common mistake I have found. No one can believe I'm 28. We also discussed the village that he is from and a different group who have been volunteering before.

The second call was to an industrial area in which a truck driver had an automatic door shut on his arm. He was in a lot of pain and we transported him to the hospital. On this call there was a second medic instead of a second volunteer. She was learning how to do stuff on the ambulance. It was nice to see someone learning as well because I feel like I'm just learning how things are done at this point, not doing much.

The rest of the shift was spent chatting with Anas at the station. He was talking about how in Israeli you take final tests in high school and the test score are factored into your class grade and then it is put on your diploma. Colleges use those scores as 30% of making the decision to accept you, the other 70% comes from your score on a test like the United States' SAT. There was a Ragil call at 2:44pm and our shift ends at 2:45pm. Anas and Daniel went off on that call as I went to the bus stop. Anas was ready to get home, guess that won't be happening for a little bit longer.

לבטל Le'vatel

Le'vatel! This has been the word of the day. To cancel. Emily and I went on two different calls. Both canceled on our way to them. The first one was a car accident and I'm not sure what the second one was.

This gave us lots of time to hang out at the station. We chatted with some of the local youth volunteers. Using some of our Hebrew. There was also a paramedic program having a practical and written exam today at the station. So people were around there just wasn't many calls.

A spectacular view to start my day

I woke up early this morning to get to the bus station so that I could buy my month pass and get to the station in Akko in time to help check the ambulance. 350 shekels later I had a pass to travel on the buses in Akko and Karmi'el. The bus ride was only about 20 minutes and I got off a stop late because I wasn't sure where all the stops were. After a brief walk back I realized I was still very early for my shift and there was a trail of some sorts across from the station. I climbed up it and had a spectator view across into Haifa and part of Akko.



After hanging out for a little bit Daniel and Emily arrived and we settled into the volunteers room. Daniel and I took the liberty of extending our sleep time. After a little bit the buzzer for an Atan sounded and Emily and I headed out to the Atan. Today we had a new team. Our call was of a man suffer from chest pain. We traveled a little bit and then met a Ragil to transfer the patient. Emily chatted with him as we took him to the hospital. After transferring him to the hospital we were on our way back to the station.

Daniel and I went out on the second call for a lady having some heart problems. We transported her to the hospital and found one of the other volunteers from our program. We hadn't seen him in a few days and it was totally random to find him at the hospital working on a Ragil from Karmi'el.

The last call of the day was to the old city of Akko. Thankfully the patient was able to walk down the stairs because they were the old, narrow stone ones which had water coating some of them. It would have been very, very slippery and dangerous to carry the patient down with the chair. After transporting her to the hospital I got back to the station to find Emily chatting with some of the youth volunteers who do the same thing we do but in the afternoon.

החייאה :First Call

The morning started out with us all meeting at the Karmi'el station to be introduced to the volunteer coordinator there. Two of us stayed in Karmi'el, the other three headed to Akko.

Once we were settled into the station at Akko we had to decide where each of us would volunteer. Two of us could be on the Atan (mobile intensive care unit with a medic and paramedic) and one would be on the Ragil (Basic life support unit with a medic). Emily, another volunteer, and I would be on the Atan and Daniel would be on the Ragil. It was a quiet morning, until the buzzer went off and Daniel was off to his first call. A little bit later a different buzzer sounded for the Atan and Emily and I were off to our first call. We met Daniel's Ragil. It was a CPR (החייאה) call, a crazy call to be our first. Unfortunately the CPR was not successful.

Upon returning to the station it was not long until we were out on our second call. This time we got out and it ended up being that the patient was taken to an ambulance station so we weren't needed and we just drove back.

The rest of the shift was hanging out at the station. The buzzer went off for an Atan as we were figuring out how to get back to Karmi'el. More calls tomorrow.

Meeting in Akko

All of us volunteers traveled to Akko this morning to meet with our volunteer coordinator. We discussed who we would make our schedule, us volunteers would work out who will go to Akko and who will go to Karmiel. We can also pickup night shifts if we would like, we just need to call to make sure there is an open spot.

After our initial discussion we went out to get a tour of an Atan, mobile intensive care unit with a paramedic and medic on it, and a Lavan, a regular ambulance with a medic on it. We found out we will be able to volunteer on both during our time here.

I have the next few days off until we all meet at the Karmiel station on Sunday. So my next post will be after the shift on Sunday.

Shabbat shalom.

Traveling Up North

(Public square near my accommodation)

The last morning together was hectic as people got up, some ate breakfast, all packed, cleaned their rooms and checked out. Then there was the organization of what bus you will be taking, group pictures, class pictures and random other pictures. Some goodbyes, some we'll see you later when we visit and finally everyone on their bus to their accommodations.

Israel is a relatively skinning country and as we left Jerusalem for the north we would be traveling up and then along the coast.

We stopped to drop off other volunteers at their lodging along the way, Karmiel is the last stop.

Israel is a striking country as you travel through it, made up of towns and cities clustered together and then small farms and industrial areas here and there. I was surprised to hear people talking about the water and I looked over and I see the Mediterranean Sea and sand beaches. I'll be about 25 minute bus ride from the ocean but my goal is to actually get in the Mediterranean Sea this trip to Israel.

We arrived at our accommodations and can we say deluxe! The rooms had water and snacks set out and soap and other stuff we would need to start out. The lady who was in charge gave us a tour and took us outside the center to show us where places are that we might need. After a falafel and grocery shopping run it was time to do laundry. Tomorrow it will be time to head to the station in the morning to meet our volunteer coordinator.

Last Days of Training

Spoiler alert: I passed my practical and written exams.

The last couple of days of training were devoted to learning a few more topics including animal bites and then lots of practice for the practical exam. We had been working so hard all day that delirium set in by the evening but many people continued to practice.

The next day was testing day and we had to show our skills in CPR, trauma assessment and treatment and taking vital signs. We also had a written exam with content questions and Hebrew vocabulary.

After everything was said and done we sat around nervous about how we had done. Some people sat second guessing what they had did and there was speculation all around about whether they had passed or not. By the end of everything people passed, received their uniform shirts and many went out to celebrate.

I celebrating by reading a little and then going to bed.

Training Day #6

It all started as a healthy competition between groups of responders in my class, class 2, and by the end of it, it was a competition between classes for who would reign supreme.

The group was picked and they needed another person so I joined them. We were competing to back-board a trauma patient and apply a number of different bandages as well. A couple of groups had been before us but when we had competed we had the top time of like 2:46 (or something close to that, you know how legends are made, the facts don't always stay solid). The next time our group was timed we clocked in at 2:06. By this point the stirrings of class competition were in the air. Their was espionage on each side and the excitement continued to build. Our group did another trial, this time without the bandaging practice, just straight back-boarding. Our time was 1:09. We felt confident but the other classes were still practicing. We did a final trial before the competition and got a slightly higher time of like 1:36.

The stage was set for class competition as all the classes made their way outside with their equipment. Final instructions were given and judges were assigned for each group. The countdown, shalosh, stein, achat and the first of four groups were off. Each group had to back-board their patient, get it checked by the judge and reorganize the equipment before the next group would be allowed to start. Our group was the anchor group because we had been posting the best times but by the time it was our turn, we had lost track of what number the other classes were on, so we didn't know if they were about to finish or if we were ahead of them. But it didn't matter, we knew our jobs and we set to work. When we had finished and stood up we knew our class was the winner! Go class 2!

There was not much time to celebrate as our group had to prepare for the head to head competition, the best groups from each class were to battle it out to see who was the fastest. This time the judges would be more strict and so we knew we had to be fast but also careful. Slow is fast! Slow is fast! After checking our equipment and organizing it just the way we wanted it the competition started. I was so focused on my tasks that I hardly knew what everyone else was doing. We worked together like a fine oiled machine. With a few things to correct along the way we finished and again we realize we had taken the second W for class 2 and that deserved a picture being taken.

But the fun wasn't done, the instructors wanted a chance to show their stuff so with all the students crowding around and the program coordinator acting the part of the patient, the instructors went to back-board with the critique of all the students as their judges. At the end the instructors were eight seconds behind our winning class group.

Location:Jerusalem

Training Days 4 & 5

The past two days have been devoted to working on how to respond to a trauma event. We went over pre hospital trauma protocol and treatment of trauma injuries with many pictures and videos to drive home what it looks like and really in general what not to do if you don't want to be a trauma victim.

This is two of the class together for a back boarding demonstration:







We have had most of the afternoon off and are preparing for Shabbat to start in about an hour. Shabbat shalom from Israel!

My מדריך (Instructor)

This is my main instructor, Avishui but everyone calls him by his last name which is Kapach. He has been working with MDA (Magen David Adom) for 16 years and is a self-proclaimed ADHD. This is why he has the pink ball, in order to entertain himself and it also doubles as a way to call on people to answer questions. With so much experience he is able to give us enrichment information and stories for almost ever condition which you would find.

Aaron Frank's Blog

Another volunteer has a blog, check it out:

Aaron Frank's Blog

Training Day #3

Today I went around with a blood pressure cuff and took people's blood pressure (lachatz dam). I knew this was going to be one of the primary things I would be able to do on the ambulance and so I wanted the pratice. I am sure many friends remember when I was taking the first responders class at the community college that I did a similar thing when I was learning to take blood pressure.

I also was involved in this practice scenario in which three of us arrived on scene to find a baby and mom unconscious and dad in an altered state of consciousness. The three of us who were practicing had to figure out what to do and handle the situation. It was a tough call but we did pretty well. We came to find out that they had poison in their food.

Training Days 1 & 2

Imagine a group of over 80 people coming from many different places all to do the same thing, work on an ambulance for the summer. You hear the different accents and the different stores, the chaos of a group of people getting to know each other and trying to figure out how the training program works. What we have found out so far is that there is breakfast, class time, lunch, class time, dinner and then speakers/free time. Well that is what we have learned so far and it is only day 2 so you never know what the other days will entill. :)

We have covered CPR, respiratory distress, stroke, vital signs and some practice. Here are a few words you might need to know if you encounter an emergency situation next time you are in Israel (translitation from Hebrew):

Hachey'ah - CPR
Chamtzan - Oxygen
Titkasher le'MDA - Call MDA (the ambulance company I'm volunteering for)
Ma karah lecha - What happened to you?
Lana'ki - To vomit

Oh and calling 911 will not help you' in Israel, there are three diffrent numbers depending on what you need 100 for police, 101 for MDA and 102 for fire.

Three more days until the midterm.

Safe in Israel

I'm safe in Israel. I've been hanging out in Jerusalem and will start my training on Monday. More updates then, if I have Internet that is. :)

Hughes is in Israel

Hello friends or should I say shalom chaverim!

I will be spending the summer doing the MDA Overseas Volunteer program (http://www.israelexperience.org.il/mda) in Israel. This is a volunteer program in which I will be working on an amblance in Israel.

For a better idea of what I will be doing, I have enjoyed these blogs of former volunteers:

Sharon Malecki's Blog
http://www.magendavidadom.org.au/sharon_vol.htm

My Life as a מד''א Chulnikit
http://mdachulnikit.blogspot.com/

I will be staying in an absorption center in Karmiel in northern Israel.