 |
 |
 |
|
|
Natalie Portman at the gala celebration. (AP)
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By Associated Press March 25, 2005 |
|
| |
The Jerusalem hospital inundated over the past four years with Israeli victims of Palestinian bombings dedicated a new emergency care unit on Thursday, just as violence appeared to be winding down.
Doctors and nurses at Hadassah Hospital can now treat three times as many victims at a time with the new, US$50 million unit in operation.
Dr. Avi Rivkind, head of the hospital's trauma and surgery department regretted that although mortality rates have improved, not everyone can be saved.
"It's still mortality. Beyond these numbers are families, children, so many lives impacted," he said. "It's not enough."
The hospital is sponsored by the Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America, and a 700-member mission from the group is in Israel for the dedication.
At a gala cermony Thursday evening at the Jerusalem Theater, actress Natalie Portman, who was born at Hadassah Hospital, presented an award to Rivkind.
Portman, who won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar this year, told Rivkind, "A soldier who was brought critically injured to Hadassah looked up from the stretcher, saw you standing there, recognized you from TV and said simply, 'I fell into good hands.' That's how all of us feel."
Pictures and video of bombing victims being wheeled in to one of the hospital's two Jerusalem facilities are part of the Israeli landscape, as the city has been a main target of Palestinian attackers since violence erupted in 2000.
Hadassah Hospital is well trained by bitter experience in dealing with victims, Rivkind said. "Senior physicians here are involved in every serious trauma case," he said, and their input helped shape the new facility.
The director of surgery and shock trauma, Dr. Kobi Assaf, said the key is speed. "One of the most crucial things we can do for trauma patients is treat them quickly," he said. "The new unit is arranged specifically to do that -- everything we need to treat them is right here."
Last month Israeli and Palestinian leaders declared an end to four years of bloodshed, but that would not put the emergency room out of business. Many more Israelis are killed and injured in traffic accidents than in terror attacks, and much of the activity in hospital emergency facilities comes from the highways.
Shining monitors, respirators, and imaging equipment are neatly arranged on metal arms poised over empty beds in the new trauma unit. Rivkind demonstrated for donors how to use a new photo imaging system: paramedics take digital photos of the area surrounding the injury, so that doctors can diagnose the type of impact and trauma.
The old unit had a capacity of 23,000 admissions a year, but admissions rose to 73,000 with the violence, as well as an upsurge in traffic accidents. That required medical staff to improvise, as head trauma nurse Eti Ben Yakov learned while serving in the military in wartime.
"If you're good you can do this stuff on the floor if you have to," Ben Yakov said.
Though it is best known for helping terror victims, the hospital would prefer making its name for treating Arabs and Jews side by side, with a staff drawn from both peoples.
Because of that side of its mission, the two hospitals in the Hadassah Medical Organization were recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
|
|
 
|
|
|
|
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the  icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
|
|
| |
|
|
