Monday, November 14, 2005
Visiting The IDF Military School
We left the hotel early in the morning to visit the medical training facilities of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Zrifin.
The military medical school is situated on the outskirts of Tel Aviv within the largest military base in the country.
There we were greeted by Colonel Erez On, MD, the Deputy Surgeon General of the State of Israel. In his speech Colonel On emphasized the importance of the course and expressed his gratitude for our willingness to volunteer our time for the welfare of the State of Israel.
The introduction was followed by a series of lectures delivered by top-ranking military officers. The Head of the IDF Trauma Medicine Branch presented the advances made in the management of casualties in conflict situations. The Head of the IDF Radiological and Nuclear Medicine Branch reviewed the principles of dealing with the effect chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare modalities and the Head of the Israeli Search and Rescue Unit shared his experiences gained by the units’ world-wide deployment.
Afterwards, Colonel (reserves) Gil Shenar summarized the principles of community disaster management and risk communication.
The following represent just some of the highlights of each lecture:
- The IDF’s military school is the only facility in
- The average time of evacuation of combat casualties is 53 minutes in high intensity conflicts and the on-site medical care is crucial to guarantee survival. It’s important to understand that most casualties die within 30 minutes of injury unless optimal trauma care is being initiated.
- All penetrating injuries are considered bleeding injuries and treated as such.
- The military surgeons operate according to the SCOOTER principle: scoop the patient, treat and run (quick evacuation and referral).
- The IDF’s CBRN Branch (Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear) provides advice and guidance for the entire population in the State of Israel.
- The press and other media outlets should be considered as first responders. Therefore it is crucial to provide accurate, honest, truthful and updated information to the media.
- The information delivery to the media needs to be practiced and tested as part of the community disaster preparedness. Everybody talking to the media should be trained and receive detailed instructions.
- Schools should be involved in the community preparedness efforts. Informed children are less prone to succumb to fear and can guide their parents, who might not have a full command of the language (new immigrants)
- A panic stricken public represents an unorganized entity, which can be organized by using optimal information delivery and distribution.
- Natural disasters claimed 3.5 million lives over the last few years and community preparedness should also include readiness measures for nature-made disasters.
- The Israeli Search and Rescue Unit was established in 1982 and includes 250 military personnel (physicians, paramedics, first aid medics, technicians etc.).
- The unit operates as
- The Search and rescue Unit can be on-site of a disaster within 3-12 hours and has been deployed world-wide.
- One of its goals is to reduce the chaos phase after a disaster, establish order, rescue and treat as many victims as possible.
- Intraosseous infusions via bone injections is the preferred access for fluid delivery.
- The medical personnel includes physicians, paramedics and first-aid medics trained to deal with complicated traumatic injuries and to treat crush injuries on-site.
After the lectures we visited the sophisticated medical simulator, which provide optimal training conditions for health care professionals. Multiple casualty scenarios can be simulated including sound and light effects providing battlefield like conditions. The performance of each participant is being videotaped from different angles, critiqued and reviewed during a debriefing.
This presentation was followed by a live exercise performed by a group of medics guided and supervised by a combat surgeon.
