the last week

Sunday-
Today was my most interesting, and fulfilling day up to now. The experiences today are the reason I decided to do this program- for real exposure, real action. I was stationned at BANATZ with Ilya and my roomate Danielle. Our first call was a car accident. From what Iunderstand, a man backed into a middle aged man who was next to a tree, and ended up crushing and snapping his leg on the tree, causing his shin bone to crack and cause an open wound. When we got to the scene, the injured victim was in excruciating pain- you could see his bone was compeltely broken, and it was an open fracture- meaning, there was external injury along with the broken bone.

There was blood everywhere, and you could see the severed tissue. Ilya was able to take control of the situation because he spoke Russian- he told me to hold the man’s leg while we positioned him onto the backboard. I cold see the tissue and bone through his wound, and could also feel his shattered bone moving in his skin. Danielle and I were also running back and forth getting all the necessary equipment, while improvising to minimize pain for the patient. I could honestly see the blood pouring out from his tissue and starting to coagulate, and I felt his bone moving and being completely fractured inside his leg. The poor man was trying so hard not to yell from the pain. He was breathing very hard the whole time, and letting out some screams every once and a while when we passed over some bumps. We put a tachboshet ishit on him to help the bleeding.

While we were driving to RAMBAM, Danielle took his blood pressure and I was responsible for minimizing the movement of his broken leg and holding the bandage in place. Every so often the bandage would slip off and you could see into his wound ( some bone was sticking out). Once we got to the hospital, he was very grateful but a bit grumpy from the pain ( and rightfully so). The doctors got straight to work, and by the time the paperwork was done, he already had a bandage and sprint put on his leg. They also gave him some morphine for the pain, so he seemed quite happy.

Our next call was also interesting. A 33 year old mentally and physically handicapped woman ( she was tiny- her whole body was about the size of my torso) had her wheelchair fall to the side and on her, causing her to crack her head open. This all occured at a special needs home. When we got there, she had a pretty bad cut on the side of her head. We transferred her on to the ambulance- it was interesting to watch her reactions because she didn’t talk. The crew at the residence said she was crying before we came, meaning she was in pain, but now she wasn’t. She was just quiet, staring around and drooling a bit. In the ambulance, we took her blood pressure, and I had to hold her head so it would face us. That way, we could watch her consciousness (by seeing her eyes move and monitoring her breathing). We cleaned her cut with savior and placed some gauze on the cut and held it the whole ride to the hospital. Once there, the doctors took over and she seemed to be okay. Ilya also checked on our previous patient, who appeared to be as high as a kite and stillwith a sprint on his leg.

We had a third call at the University (right near the dorms that we stayed at) for someone who fainted and wasn’t feeling well. But, it got cancelled as we were on our way there.

Our last call was for a drunk Russian guy (again..). This time, he was actually quite clean and responsive. We found him on a bench with his tshirt stretched over his heads and legs, and he was asleep in the fetal position. He had about 3 bottles of vodka around him. I was a bit concerned that I would have to sit alone with him in the back of the ambulance. Ilya told us to wait in the ambulance while he checked out the situation. He poked and pushed him until the guy woke up and put his shirt back on. He said he didn’t want to go to thehospital, so we just sat there until he walked away. He was barely able to walk in a straight line! I’m not going to lie, it was kind of funny watching him walk away all drunkly from the rear view mirror.

These experiences weren’t as exciting as some of my other calls, but to me, it was the day which I did the most, and had to react quickly. I always had to be on my feet and I actually got to do more than just supply the patient with oxygen. Not to mention, not one of our calls were for seniors… that’s almost unheard of here!

At the end of the day, I came back to the apartment, gathered some things, changed my clothes, and then caught the bus to Afula. There, I was greeted by my cousin Karen and my Aunt Micki. This was the first time I have ever met them. They are the wife and (youngest)daughter of my Uncle Benny, my father’s older brother. I was really excited to meet him, seeing that I have never met him or his family before. Also, he recently had some heart problems and had to undergo some surgeries. It was nice seeing him feeling good, and not in a bad state.

Micki and Karen brought me to their kibbutz just north of Afula. It was such a beautiful kibbutz! All new and modern- very nice. At their house, I met their other daughter and her 4 daughters. The oldest daughter, Orianne, was doing a family project, and wanted to ask me a million questions about me and the family back in Canada as her special project theme. I thought it was really sweet of her. She tried speaking in English, but ended up going back and forth between English and Hebrew. Her other sisters were so sweet.(but I can’t remember their names.. I’m so terrible with names!) The middle one was in kindergarten, and the two youngest ones are twins. They’re 4 years old, and they are so different! It’s quite funny that they are the third pair of girl twins in the Touyz family.

I caught up and got to know Uncle Benny, his wife, and his 2 daughters for a while, and then we went to the Kibbutz’s dining hall and had a light supper. It was really nice to see what the Kibbutz living environment was like- a real community. We then went back to their house for a bit, and then I needed to head back to Haifa (1.5 hours away). I was a little sad saying goodbye to Uncle Benny, but I really hope to see him again soon, as well as the rest of the family. They were so nice and welcoming. I hope to return the favor one day.

Monday
Today it was just me and my driver, Yonatan. He was quite quiet, but he was okay. Sam tagged along with us in the morning since he was nahag 4. Our first call wasn’t anything exciting. A woman wasn’t feeling well, and she lived quite far out of Haifa. The NATAN was closer to where she was, so they picked her up, and we met up with them to pick her up from them (since she wasn’t a serious case, it would have been a waste if they used the NATAN to just bring her to the hospital). We brought her to the hospital with her son, and that was that. We then spent most of the day back at the station, until we got our second call at an old aged home. A senior man who didn’t speak much English hadn’t gone to the bathroom in a couple of days. He had glaucoma and hypertension. We took him to the hospital, and they took care of him. And that was basically my day on the ambulance. I took blood pressure and heart rate a few times, monitored the patients, gave oxygen, and tried communicating even though there was a langauge barrier. It was interesting from that perspective, having to communicate without speaking the same language.

When we got back to the apartment, Danielle and I decided to go explore and find the shook.After a few busrides, we found it. The area it was in was called Hadar, a very religious area- all the men have peyot and the women cover their hair. Some people joke and call them penguins here in Israel. 

The shook in Haifa is not like the other shooks I have been to. This was a REAL market- full of fruits and vegetable stands, a few bakeries, and a few butchers. It was so authentic! I bought some stuffed vine leaves which were delicious, and I found the fruits that Marcie made me try- LOQUATS! they are just too delicious. I hope that we have them back home! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat

After the shook, I showered, did my laundry, made myself dinner, sat outside and played with the kitties. These kitties are the apartment’s kitties, and not just strays. They are just too sweet for words. Its a little heartbreaking that all they really want is some food, so Ian and I try to feed them when we can. The others aren’t such fans of the kitties… they don’t know what they’re missing. One is such a little cheek, he reminds me a lot of Tooky. When you play with him and he gets excited, he starts lifiting up his paws like he’s dancing. It’s really cute. If I could, I would take all the little babies home with me!

We were all so tired, we ended up going to bed around 9:15… we’re such oldies! hehehe.

Tuesday

On Tuesday I worked with Sharon and Aviv. We were Nahag 1, meaning we got the first call of the day. We got our first nessiya at 7:45, but it got cancelled en route. Instead of going straight back to the station, we stopped at the local bakery, where Aviv got some stuff, and Sharon and I got a boureka. The gvinah bourekas here are just to die for, they are SO good! I could eat them every single day.

Our second call was quite interesting. We were called to a car accident, where a man hit a pedestrian by mistake. It wasn’t anythign too serious, but the man was blind, and didn’t speak much hebrew, just Russian. Again, it was interesting to interact with him and communicate with him seeing there was a language barrier. We brought him to the hospital, and I think he will be ok. His blood pressure was a bit high, and his pulse was a bit low, and his whole right side hurt ranging from his leg-arm-head. I hope it wasn’t anything too serious, but from the looks of it, he seemed to be fine.

Our third call was a unique one. We went to the patient’s flat, and we were in for a surprise. A 60 year old heavy Russian woman, who was clearly a chain smoker and bedridden ( she couldn’t stand, and her legs were all swollen) fell out of her bed and couldn’t get up. She was so heavy that Aviv knew that the three of us wouldn’t have been able to lift her, so he called for backup. Another ambulance came, with Eddy and Kerry, and the 3 of them had to lift her up and get her back onto her bed.It was quite an event to take her blood pressure and pulse and get her up again. Her apartment smelled like stale cigarette smoke, grime, and dirty laundry. I was eager to get out of there. She didn’t want to go to the hospital, so we packed up the things, and left.

We spent most of the rest of the day in the station watching MTV. It wasn’t that fun, but what could you do, sometimes we have those kind of days. Usually, around 2:30, the other volunteers start to come, and we rarely get any calls, and if we do, Nahag 4 goes on them. But for some reason, at exactly 2:30pm, all of us got calls! It was the strangest thing. We all got back to the apartments have 3:30pm, which is quite late. Our last call was for an elderly woman at a clinic who had chest pain and trouble breathing. We picked her up and rushed her to the hospital while we took her blood pressure and pulse and gave her high oxygen. Aviv was in a rush to finish the shift, since it was already 3:15, and he was working the night shift as well at 11:00 pm, so he drove a bit crazy. We finished the call at exactly 3:30, which is pretty good.

When we got back to the apartment, I waited for Ian to go to Kanyon Haifa to exchange some money. We went and walked around a bit, then came back and met everyone to go out for dinner. We walked up the main street of the German Colony, which goes up to the bottom of the Bahai gardens. We settled on an Arabic restaurant called Fattoush. I had a traditional chicken dish made with tomatoes, onions, and sumac. It was quite good ( but a bit salty). Kerry and I then shared a Knafeh, but it wasn’t as good (or as authentic) as the ones I had in Isifiya and Akko.

We then walked back to the apartments, and I couldn’t resist playing with the kitties again in the courtyard. I played with three of the little ones with Ian for a bit, and then I headed to bed. What a long day!

lots of love

SjjT

March 24, 2010. Israel- During MDA.