The superior walks up to one of the spaces where he parked the car a short time ago. Now there are two beds there instead. The patients are connected to a series of tubes and wires, and both are placed in an artificial coma. They do not know that they are being monitored and treated in a parking garage. Senior doctor Yaron Bar-Lavie has to find other places to park his car when he is at work. Photo: Torstein Bøe / news – It works well, although the risk of infection increases when they are so close together. We no longer think of this as a garage facility, says Yaron Bar-Lavie who is senior physician at the intensive care unit at Rambam Medical Center. He believes that the risk of infection is still not in proportion to the consequences of a missile attack. This day there have already been three of them against Haifa, but all were shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system. So the need after the previous war Bar-Lavie remembers what it was like to work here during the previous Lebanon war in 2006. Then they had no safe places for the patients. – 46 missiles hit close to the hospital. The target was probably the naval base nearby. So we will probably keep these patients here as long as this goes on, and it could take a few months, he says. Several of the patients are in a coma and do not know that they are being treated in a car park. Photo: Torstein Bøe / news The experience from that war made them think again. When the parking facility was built in 2010, it was planned that it could be used as a bomb-proof hospital in the event of a war. In the huge garage facility there is, among other things, a maternity ward, four operating theaters and a dialysis centre. In addition, the employees can have their children here while they are at work. Children of employees rest close together. Photo: Åse Marit Befring / news The ventilation system is as good as in the hospital building itself and in each car park there is an intake for oxygen, vacuum and electricity. A filter system against chemical and biological warfare is installed in the ceiling. – It is dangerous in many places in Israel now, but here I feel safe, says Ofer Ratmer. He is in the hospital for dialysis treatment three times a week, and now takes the lift down three floors underground. Ofer Ratmer feels safe here when he receives dialysis for 4 hours 3 times a week. Photo: Torstein Bøe / news Space for 2,200 patients From the time it is decided that the garage will be put on standby until it is ready to receive patients, it takes 72 hours. The floor is washed and ventilation systems and mobile power panels are installed in the car parks. Mobile toilets and sinks must also be in place. Several hundred people participate in the process. The parking facility has the capacity to receive 2,200 patients. There are more than in the hospital itself. In the event of a major attack, patients will also be moved here from other nearby hospitals. Over 1,000 patients were treated here at the beginning of October, but now there are just over 600 critically ill patients left. At the same time that Hezbollah has sent missiles at Haifa, Israel has recently attacked several hospitals in Gaza. Over the weekend, over 50 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks targeting hospitals, according to the Palestinian health authorities. Norwegian Elisabeth fears for the children Elisabeth Wergeland Dror works as a nurse in the cardiac ward. She begins to cry when she tries to put into words how she experiences the tense situation. Elisabeth Wergeland Dror is a nurse at the heart department. Photo: Torstein Bøe / news – Missiles and drones are coming as it is. It’s pretty scary. I have children, she says. Wergeland Dror moved to Israel and Haifa in 2017. The city is known for and proud of being a city where Arab Palestinians and Jews live side by side. Every third employee at the hospital is an Arab Palestinian, and many of the patients who stay here are Muslim. But the city is only four miles from Lebanon across the Mediterranean and in recent weeks the rocket alarm has gone off frequently. Wergeland finds it difficult to explain to the children what is happening. – My son is just over two years old, but he still understands a lot and gets scared, she says. Elisabeth Wergeland Dror is afraid of her children when there are missile attacks Photo: Torstein Bøe / news Published 22 October 2024, at 08.24
ttn-69
Patients are treated in a parking garage in northern Israel after an attack by Hezbollah – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
