2025-03 Israel

Israel 25,

April 15, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

Today once again I had a great team with MDA. I had worked with one of the paramedic last week who is in her training period. I had a driver with whom I had worked as well as the chief of the station. It was like a reunion and I was happy to work again with these highly skilled paramedics. I learn something on every shift and this shift was no different.

Our 1st case was a simple elderly lady with an aspiration pneumonia. She was on IV antibiotics at home and was not improving so we transferred her to the hospital.

The 2nd case was much more exciting. We got the message that there had been an explosion in an apartment building. We could see the smoke rising in the air in the distance. We put the siren on and sped to the building at breakneck speed in the city. When we arrived, the firemen with fire trucks had already arrived. The police were there and there were already several ambulances present. This was a very poor area of town with many new immigrants from Africa. The lady was cooking with propane gas and the tank of propane exploded. The entire front of the apartment was blown out on the street. The firehoses were out and the firemen had already entered the building. If there is one job in the world that I would never do, it would be a fireman. I told that to the paramedic who smiled and said that they have to be very brave. In the end, there were 2 persons injured, not too badly and they were taken away in the first ambulance that had arrived.

The 3rd case was a trauma case that was bad, but could have been much worse. We got an alert that a child had been injured by a pipe and had a penetrating chest wound. We put the siren on and sped to the case. We were doing 150 km/hr breaking my previous record of 140 that I filmed last year. I have never gone so fast in an ambulance. I filmed a lot of the journey and will try to put some of it on my blog in the future. I was not wearing my seat belt as the paramedics usually don’t wear one behind the drivers. When we turned a corner I almost flew… When we arrived, the father had picked up the child and placed him in his truck on the front seat. The 11 year old boy was walking in between 2 buildings when a 2 meter rod, 2 cm in diameter had fallen straight down from the 3rd floor. The child penetrating chest wound 2cm in diameter and 2 cm deep in the anterior triangle of the neck above the clavicle. I never saw someone work as fast and as efficiently as the chief. He examined the wound and then covered it with a bandage. He then secured the arm to the chest with a bandage to prevent movement to the upper arm.

In trauma cases, the paramedics must stabilize and move the patient into the ambulance in 10 minutes. The case took 7 minutes and we were off to the hospital. The metal object had penetrated the skin and muscles but not the lung or chest cavity. The clavicle was visible. The child was very lucky. Had the rod struck his head, 4 cm away, the injury would have been fatal. The rod missed the subclavian artery and vein by 1 cm. That probably would have been a fatal injury as he would have bled out. We did not suspect a neurological injury as the child could move his arm. This will require further testing at the hospital. The child was extremely brave. He did not utter a sound of complaint. He will have a CT scan and surgery immediately on arrival at the hospital. The physicians in the ER were waiting for him when we arrived as we can message them in advance of the injury.

The last case was simple fractured or sprained ankle that we transported to the hospital.

I am sitting in a restaurant at the bar, eating supper, drinking beer and writing my blog. Wine in a restaurant in Israel is very expensive so I usually drink beer. I am at Dizengoff Square again at a different restaurant. Dizengoff Square is packed with people even on a Tuesday evening at 10:00 pm. The vibe here is indescribable. I like to sit at the bar when I am alone as often it gives me a chance to talk to my neighbours. I struck up a conversation with a charming couple who were originally from Soviet Union but have lived in New York for 40 years. He was a urologist in Russia but is now a pulmonary specialist after some retraining. His son is a urologist and does robotic surgery. His name is Boris. He laughed when I told him that I was named after my grandfather Boris but my mother refused to call me Boris Morris. Hence the name Brian Morris, very Anglo and dignified.

Love,

Brian

Dizengoff Square