At the Haifa-based Rambam Hospital, an underground hospital – the largest in the world —was erected a decade ago for the IDF to use to evacuate the wounded during an emergency or war.
A little over a month ago, Rambam opened the underground facility’s doors and turned the lights on.
We’re at war. But not the kind we had prepared for. We didn’t imagine that the war we’d be fighting would be against a virus.
Our relationship with Rambam Hospital is long, close, and ongoing; our daily lives are connected. The hospital’s medical staff has already been at the forefront of this war for nine months. During the lockdown, when the hospitals became increasingly overcrowded, we joined Rambam’s medical teams, working alongside them.
Just before Rosh Hashanah, we sent 130 men and women soldiers – doctors, nurses and paramedics – to reinforce Rambam Hospital. Our job is to lend a helping hand and enlist in the effort.
We’re there to help patients, and help Rambam’s medical staff deal with the pandemic. When military doctors begin their shifts, a Rambam doctors is responsible for one less patient and can feel a little less alone in his or her battle.
It’s not always so simple. Even when a relationship is based on trust and partnership and is full of good intentions, it is still one in which two separate entities are connected – one of them being a military unit. Each side brings its own perceptions, abilities, strengths and weaknesses to the relationship. For example, a military doctor’s daily work is very different from treating COVID-19 patients in an inpatient ward.
So how do we make it work? With a sense of shared responsibility, overcoming obstacles, maintaining our high levels of professionalism.
Like everything else related to COVID-19, everything happened so quickly: within a few days, we became hospital staff. Today, in the underground COVID-19 ward, you can see tired and hard-working faces of medical staff. Under their protective gear, some of the staff are civilians and some are soldiers.
Last week, we also brought IDF paramedics to the hospital. We were a bit apprehensive about whether it could succeed: can medics, some of whom are in reserve and have just been called up from their regular daily lives, successfully take on the position?
And then I saw one of our reserve paramedics sitting with an elderly COVID-19 patient. As he lay dying, she held his hand. Her presence allowed him to part with our world; he was a little less alone.
This image illustrates, more than anything, what drives us forward.