Jerusalem, 16 February 2012
MAGEN DAVID ADOM COOPERATES WITH PALESTINIAN RED CRESCENT TO TREAT VICTIMS
OF THIS MORNING'S FATAL TRAFFIC ACCIDENT
Today (Thursday), 16.2.12, at 09:00, Magen David Adom (MDA) Jerusalem
received a call reporting that there had been an accident between a truck
and bus carrying schoolchildren from Anata in northern Jerusalem. As a
result of the accident, the bus had overturned into a roadside ditch and had
caught fire.
MDA immediately declared a mass-casualty event. Large forces of intensive
care ambulances, ambulances, medics, doctors and paramedics were summoned.
In addition, senior MDA officers, including MDA Director-General Eli Binn,
arrived on the scene.
Paramedic Shalom Galil, responsible for the Ofra station, was among the
first to arrive at the site. "The burning bus was on its side. We began to
sweep the area in order to find people who were injured and/or trapped. At
the same time, firefighters entered the bus in order to rescue anyone who
was trapped and to extinguish the fire. Unfortunately, the firefighters
pulled out five bodies of eight-to-ten-year-old children. We also received
and began to treat two teachers who were pulled out of the bus in light
condition. One suffered from a fracture and the second from contusions on
the face. We also received and began to treat the truck driver, a
51-year-old man, who was in light condition, suffering from contusions only.
We evacuated all of the injured to Hadassah-Mt. Scopus hospital
http://www.hadassah.org.il/English/Eng_MainNavBar/News/Press+messages/Accident.htm
after first treating them on the scene," Galil said.
MDA forces found no additional injured people at the scene as the remaining
victims had been evacuated – in private vehicles by people who had gathered
at the site and via Red Crescent ambulances – to hospitals in Ramallah.
During the rescue operation, MDA Director-General Binn met – at the scene –
with the President of the Palestinian Red Crescent and offered, in the
framework of the efficient cooperation between the two organizations, to
place at the Red Crescent's disposal considerable MDA forces to assist in
transferring the injured who had been evacuated to hospitals in Ramallah to
hospitals within the Green Line so that the injured could receive the best
care possible. To this end, MDA Dir.-Gen. Binn allocated considerable MDA
forces within a very short time. He also offered as many units of blood as
were necessary.
In order to facilitate the transfer of the injured to hospitals in Jerusalem
and the center of the country, MDA ambulances and intensive care ambulances
were at the DCO adjacent to Beit El. From there, MDA forces evacuated eight
injured people (two seriously, four moderately and two lightly). The two
seriously injured persons and two of those who were moderately injured were
evacuated to Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer
http://eng.sheba.co.il/
including the driver of the bus, an approximately 50-year-old man suffering
from third-degree burns on his extremities and fractures in his hands. A
four-year-old boy, in moderate condition and with a suspected head injury,
was evacuated to Schneider Children's Medical Center
http://www.schneider.org.il/Eng
in Petah Tikva. One injured person in moderate condition was evacuated to
the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center
http://www.tasmc.org.il/sites/en/Pages/default.aspx
and two people in light condition were evacuated to Hadassah-Ein Kerem
hospital
http://www.hadassah.org.il/English/Eng_MainNavBar/News/Press+messages/Accident.htm
in Jerusalem. MDA forces are currently waiting at the Beit El checkpoint in
order to transfer additional injured victims to hospitals in the center of
the country.
MDA Director-General Binn said, "There is no doubt that the cooperation
between all of the forces that worked together at the scene enabled, and is
still enabling, the saving of lives and the giving of the best possible
medical care to those who were injured in the accident. In such cases,
there is no significance to the ethnicity or origin of the victims and we
all work to one end – saving lives."
* Please click here
http://www.mdais.org/316/13738.htm
to view photographs of MDA units at the scene of the accident (captions in
Hebrew only).
* Please click here
http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/analysis/saving-lives-in-judea-and-samaria-the-untold-story/2012/01/25/
for an article on Palestinian emergency medical cooperation with MDA and the
IDF.
Zaki Heller Zakih@mda.org.il
MDA Spokesman
052-3696444
