What an interesting day. This morning after breakfast we left for the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital and Trauma Center. Before learning about the hospital it is important to learn about its history. HADASSAH, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, is a volunteer women's organization, whose members are motivated and inspired to strengthen their partnership with Israel, ensure Jewish continuity, and realize their potential as a dynamic force in American society.
Hadassah Medical Center is a medical organization that operates two University hospitals at Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, Israel, as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology affiliated with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The hospital was founded by Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, which continues to underwrite a large part of its budget today. In 2005, Hadassah was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in acknowledgment of its equal treatment of all patients, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, and efforts to build bridges to peace.
For 13 years, the hospital operated in rented space around Jerusalem. In 1961, a new medical complex was built in Ein Karem in southwest Jerusalem. The Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America again assisted with funding, and the somewhat out-of-the-way location was chosen in part because an appropriate site was difficult to obtain in the city-center, and Hadassah owned a large plot in Ein Kerem.
Today the hospital accommodates 700 beds. It contains 130 departments and clinics in 22 buildings. The hospital complex also includes the Hebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, public health, and pharmacology, as well as many modern research laboratories. The campus synagogue is famous for its stained glass windows depicting the twelve tribes of Israel, created and donated in 1960 by Marc Chagall. Hadassah's director is Professor Shlomo Mor-Yosef. Prominent physicians include Avraham Rivkind, founder and director of the hospital's trauma center, Ahmed Eid, head of the liver and kidney transplant unit, and Arie Eldad, head of the department of plastic surgery and burns unit. In March 2007, Jewish American billionaire William Davidson donated $75 million dollars to the hospital. In April 2009, following an initiative of the Puah Institute, the hospital opened a fertility clinic for AIDS patients, the first such clinic in Israel. Prof. Shlomo Ma'ayan heads the clinic.
The Hadassah hospital was NOTHING short of amazing. To begin we met with Professor Rein, a preeminent pedatric cardiologist who has worked on numerous breakthrough procedures, including inutero repair of atrial septal defects and "blue baby syndrome." Dr. Rein started an organization called A Heart for Peace. At Hadassah hospital, Palestinian children sick of often fatal congenital cardiopathy are able to be treated without paying and can receive the same level of care than Jewish or Arabic Israeli children. This pathology requires an advanced heart surgery which is performed in the cardiological surgery department of Hadassah hospital. It is there that these children are taken care by Israeli and Palestinian doctors.
The goal of A Heart for Peace is to allow each year at least fifty Palestinian children to undergo heart surgery. This organization was a perfect example of how some issues can rise above religous and political differences.
Next, we visited the Trauma center. Hadassah's trauma unit has one of the lowest mortality rates of any center of its type in the world. Out of 16,000 patients from 1999 to 2007, Hadassah had only a 2.1 percent mortality rate, compared to 6.7 percent for Level I trauma centers in the United States. In December 2004, the Trauma Unit moved into Hadassah’s new Sidney and Judy Swartz Department of Emergency Medicine. It now accommodates simultaneous treatment of six multiple trauma patients, with facilities for a much larger volume in mass casualty situations. Equipment and technology in the Unit are state-of-the-art, with photo imaging systems that enable transmission of digital images to the hospital from the field to facilitate identification of the mechanism of injury.
Due to the internet connection, I can't upload more pictures of the Trauma Center but particularly interesting was the fact that the trauma center was built inside a bomb shelter and is completely blast proof in addition to being hermatically sealed to protect against biological attacks. The center can operate without opening its outer doors for up to two weeks in the case of a major emergency. The picture above is of the "VIP Room." This room was created in 2004 after the French Foreign Minister thought he was having a heart attack and was rushed to Hadassah. Turns out nothing was wrong but the 20+ staff members really irked the staff. To solve the problem they created a huge trauma bay for "VIPs" that is fully equipped with WIFI access and secure phone lines. Hadassah Ein Karem is the second hospital in line for dignitary visits so it most certainly needs the space!
We then visited Mt. Herzl National Cemetery, named after Theodore Herzl, founder of the moderm Zionist movement. This was a very moving experience, but alas I will have to elaborate later.
I want to elaborate on two last things for the day.
The first was the Security Border Tour and briefing that we received from Col. Res. Danny Tirza, the architect of the Israel Security Border. Danny explained to us that before the building of the wall Israel frequently was subjected to suicide bombers and various other terrorist attacks. In 20044 the government of Israel at the urging of the Israeli Defense Force finally agreed to allow the construction of the fence on the entire "border" of the West Bank.
In short, the construction of the wall was rife with complications. The Israeli goverment was condemened by the UN and the United States for the construction of the wall and the Palestinians began to compare the border to the Berlin wall. However only about 22 of 436 miles are actual concrete barriers, in place to prevent gunfire and rocket attacks in adjacent residential areas. Including one kindergarten school that wsa bombed in 2004 from Bethlehem.
The barrier is a highly controversial project. Supporters argue that the barrier is a necessary tool protecting Israeli civilians from Palestinian terrorism, including suicide bombing attacks, that increased significantly during the al-Aqsa Intifada; it has been one major factor behind the significantly reduced number of incidents of suicide bombings from 2002 to current.
Opponents argue that the barrier is an illegal attempt to annex Palestinian land under the guise of security, violates international law, has the intent or effect to pre-empt final status negotiations, and severely restricts Palestinians who live nearby, particularly their ability to travel freely within the West Bank and to access work in Israel.
My take: since 2006, there have been no suicide bomber attacks in Jerusalem, proof that the fence is effective. As long as it is needed, then it should stay up. The Israeli people would be the first ones to celebrate not needing to use it anymore!
Tomorrow morning, I will post about a lecture by Dr. Daniel Gordis, author of Saving Israel: How Israel Can Win a War That May End, that paticularly moved me.
