mcgill – gobriantravel

Israel 18,

April 7, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

I wore my Nike running shoes for the first time today and they were wonderful. I was bouncing all over the place each time I took a step, it was a wonder that I didn’t just fly away. I will try running with them in a few days.

I had a new team at MDA today but I was posted on the same base. We checked the ambulance at 6:30 and had our first call at 7:00. We walked up 3 flights of stair and found an 85 year old woman in bed, short of breath. The woman was already on oxygen. The room was 10ft x 10ft. We somehow lifted the patient onto a stretcher. The stretcher is made so that it can turn into a chair which is easier to manage. We then carried her down the stairs to the ambulance and took her to the hospital. She was oedematous and probably in congestive heart failure.

The second case was an elderly man in the very religious sector of Tel Aviv called Bnai Brak. These people have 6-10 children so you see children running around everywhere. It is a shame but religious areas in Israel are often over crowded, run down and dirty. There was garbage everywhere as if people don’t care about cleanliness. The man was short of breath from bradycardia. His pulse was 46 meaning sinus bradycardia, an athlete or a heart block. He was in no acute distress so we took his VS, gave him oxygen and monitored him.

We were on our way to a hospital when we received an emergency call that a child had fallen into the water and was unconscious. When we arrived, the child had already been brought down stairs and 2 paramedics were giving CPR. In a child you give heart massage with your thumbs. They were bagging the child with a mask and oxygen. There was a discussion among the paramedics and it was decided that we had the most experience with children. While continuing with CPR, we transferred our elderly patient to another ambulance and took charge of the child.

The chief paramedic in my ambulance was amazing. He took charge immediately and gave orders to the other paramedics in a calm but direct fashion. We did an EKG and found that the child was flat lined. In this case, defibrilation is not indicated. He got an IV access by directly putting an IV into the knee. He then delivered adrenaline. The ambulance took off at full speed to Schneider Children’s Hospital which is a major children’s hospital in Israel. While the ambulance was moving, he intubated the child which is not an easy manoeuvre to do in a 4 month old child in a moving ambulance. I was very impressed with his work. He obviously has had a lot of experience with infants.

The physicians at the hospital were waiting for us to arrive. By the time we arrived in the hospital we had a pulse with a heart rate and a blood pressure. The chief of the ER took charge immediately. After a few moments, the child started to breath spontaneously but they continued to bag him for support. The child’s pupils were dilated but maybe not fixed which would indicate brain damage.

We left at this point and as usual with MDA, we usually don’t know the final result of our work. The mother looked to be between 25 and 30, ultra religious with a long dress. She had left the child next to the sink for an unknown period of time and for an unknown reason. Somehow the child had rolled over and fallen into the sink, and drowned. We could not find out how long the child was not breathing. The first ambulance was on the scene within minutes and CPR was done immediately. Brain damage begins 4 minutes after a lack of oxygen and is irreversible at 10 minutes. A child can sometimes last longer.

The chief paramedic was sitting alone in the ambulance writing out his report. I went over to him, touched his shoulder and told him that he had done his best. I know that he appreciated my words of support.

The woman sat in the ambulance with us staring ahead with absolutely no emotion. She never spoke or cried. Her husband arrived at the hospital just after us. He was dressed in ultra religious clothes. He also expressed no emotion. The woman will never forgive herself for the 1-2 minutes of inattention. The child is in God’s hands now. Unfortunately, there is no God.

Our last patient was a 6 month old child with a first episode of epilepsy probably viral related. The child had stopped convulsing when we arrived and was waking up. We brought the child to the nearest hospital for further evaluation and treatment.

All in all it was a busy, emotionally packed day.

Love,

Brian

Paramedics

Tel Hashomer Hospital, the 8th best hospital in the world according to Newsweeks evaluation. The country has 9 million people. University of Toronto is 3rd in the world. McGill is in the 90s. It is not surprising if you read my last evaluation of McGill.

Schneider Children’s Hospital

My MDA team

Israel 15,

April 5, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

‘When this hole world starts getting me down, And people are just too much for me to face, I climb way up to the top of the stairs, And all my cares just drift right into space, On the roof,its peaceful as can be, And there the world can’t bother me.’

It’s Saturday morning, cool, sunny with blue skies and 18C. I am up on the terrace at my hotel over looking the beach. The sailboats are out but people are waiting for it to warm up before venturing into the water. The view here is sublime. I just had breakfast with 3 ladies from the States, Australia and Canada. I meet people from everywhere here. The words of the above song unfortunately ring clear to me today. The news from Canada is awful. At McGill, my alma mater and where I have a teaching position as Clinical Lecturer, the pro-Palestinian hoodlums are striking against classes for 3 days. They occupied buildings, broke windows and prevented legitimate students from attending classes. The police were called, made no arrests and didn’t use tear gas. Are the tariffs imposed on tear gas too high so there is a lack of it in Canada. Are the police still serving cappuchinos to the demonstrators? Can you still spit on a police man with impunity, an event that occurred in Toronto last year? Canada is the only country in the world where you can spit on a police man and be arrested. In every other country such as France, the USA or Saudi Arabia, you would be beaten into the ground so badly that there would be nothing left to arrest. I don’t recognize McGill anymore. In Toronto the demonstrators occupied Union Station and stopped transportation. Once again where are the police? Have they not heard of tear gas? Do they no longer use tasers to control violent protesters? You don’t have to taser a lot of them. Taser one and the other cowards will run away. These people are not French demonstrators from the 60s who knew how to dig up paving stones on the street and throw them at the cops. They are pro-Palestinians who are afraid of a good fight. If they really were tough and wanted to support the Palestinians, they would be in Gaza fighting

I blame the former Prime Minister, the mayor of Toronto, the mayor of Montreal and the Dean of McGill for letting this happen. This ‘protest’ should have been nipped in the bud 1 year ago when it first started. Instead it was allowed to occur resulting in an escalation in which saying ‘death to the Jews’ is a common occurrence and is no longer considered to be racist. Throwing paint or fire bombs at so called Jewish institutions is now considered to be one’s natural right to self expression. Is a bakery that sells bagel owned by citizens of Greek ancestry now considered to be a ‘Jewish Institution’ that must be stamped out. Last year I received a letter from the Dean of McGill saying that protest is a healthy reaction by students in a university setting. I warned him in a personal letter that of course was not answered, that violence will occur if nothing is done. Are they waiting for someone to be beaten up or killed for them to do something? Or will the reaction be ‘oh my, tut tut’. I received another letter from the same Dean on Holocaust Memorial Day saying that is a day of remembrance for the people that were killed in the Holocaust. So, to fight this racism, McGill has set up a committee to fight racism called the Committee to Fight Islamophobia and Antisemitism. Excuse me!! What does Islamophobia have to do with Holocaust Memorial day? Except for a few isolated incidents, where is there Islamophobia in Canada today? Islamophobia and Holocaust Memorial Day should not even be mentioned in the same sentence. As for the committee, why is Islamophobia and Antisemitism given equal footing in the name of the Committee. Islamophobia is obviously more important at McGill than Antisemitism or else the 2 words should have been placed in alphabetical order!!

Yesterday morning I met up with my cousin Richard and 3 of his friends in Richon le Tzion for a run on the beach. I told Richard that he could run at his pace and that I would catch up with him on his run back. He is a real gentleman and elected to run with me at my pace. We ran for 7.35 km which took about 1 hour. Of the 3 disciplines in a triathlon, running is my weakest. However, I can do 10 km if I pace myself. We ran on the beach without shoes mostly on the hard packed sand. There were some patches of shells on the beach so you had to be a little careful. Afterwards, we met up with his 3 friends at Golda’s where he treated me to an ice cream and a cappuccino. The portions of ice cream that they give you in a medium cup are enormous and delicious. I didn’t eat for the rest of the day. I hope that they invite me next week. Richard and I might do a long distance swim.

In the afternoon, I went out to the beach. After a hard week’s work on the IDF base topped off with Krav Maga, I think that I deserve a little R and R. As usual I swam out to the breakwater. There were big waves so I did some body surfing later in the afternoon. In the early evening I was back at my usual haunt, the laundromat, to do my weekly laundry. I am now quite good with the machines, knowing how to purchase soap with a coin, pay for the right machine with a credit card as they are numbered and starting the machine by pushing the start button. I even helped a newbie to get started with her machine.

Love,

Brian

My running team