Israeli Doctors Save Syrian Lives

Israeli doctors save Syrian lives [Excerpts]

In critical condition with severe shrapnel injuries to their torso and limbs, bullet wounds from head to toe and open fractures — this is how Syrian patients arrive at Israeli hospitals in the north of the country. And they are all treated like any other patient.

“It’s our duty as a regional hospital, where we are located along the Lebanese border on one side and the Syrian border on the other side,” Dr. Amram Hadary, director of the trauma unit at Ziv Medical Center in Safed (Tsfat), tells ISRAEL21c. “We cannot ignore that the Syrian conflict is happening behind our door. We cannot close our eyes, ears and hearts to what is happening there. It’s a catastrophe.”

World interest was piqued earlier this year when the first seven Syrian civilians crossed the border into Israel to receive medical treatment at Ziv. Although Israel and Syria are officially enemies, since that initial humanitarian gesture in February, different reports cite between 50 to 100 victims of the bloody civil war have been admitted to Israeli hospitals for life-saving surgeries.

“We treat patients regardless of religion, race, nationality, and give the best care we can provide,” [said] Ziv Medical Center director Dr. Oscar Embon.

The Israeli medical staff has no idea who the Syrian patients are. They could be civilians caught in cross-fire, part of the military or members of the rebel forces.

Hadary says: “We don’t know who we’re treating, armed or not armed, wearing uniform or not wearing uniform. Because of the critical condition in which many of them arrive, we don’t question who they are. It is irrelevant. They are patients and are treated with the best measures we have in the hospital. Everyone gets the same treatment.”

Throughout Israel’s history – pockmarked with numerous conflicts — doctors have treated people regardless of their ethnicity, even if their country was at war with Israel. Ziv doctors cared for enemy soldiers and a Syrian pilot as far back as the 1982 Lebanon war, hospital officials said.

The youngest victim of Syrian violence to be transferred to Israel for treatment to date was a nine year old boy. There have also been teenagers, 20-somethings and those without a known age.

The nine-year-old boy arrived in Israel last night (June 25) accompanied by his father — marking the first time a non-patient was allowed into Israel since the IDF opened the border to the Syrian victims.

All four medical facilities in the north of Israel have Arabic-speaking social workers, trauma specialists and nurses.

A week later, doctors found a note – written in Arabic – attached to the clothes of a 28-year-old in need of lifesaving surgery. The note detailed previous medical care the patient had received in Syria days earlier. The unnamed Syrian physician asked his Israeli counterparts to save the patient’s life.

“This marked a turning point,” says Embon. “This is a change that they’re coming after being treated in Syria. The note shows me that they’re aware that we’re treating the injured and that it’s okay to refer patients who need enhanced treatment. The note was like any normal letter between two hospitals.”

“The note was very special because one of our problems is we don’t have medical data about previous treatment on the other side of the border,” says Hadary, director of the trauma unit. “It’s important from a professional point of view to have this medical letter. And the bottom line is [the Syrian doctor] was wishing us luck with what we are doing.”

Whether the cooperation between the medical communities will influence the political situation remains to be seen.

http://israel21c.org/social-action-2/israeli-doctors-save-syrian-lives/