Located about 25 miles from the Gaza Strip, Soroka Medical Center is where the wounded were sent after the Hamas terrorist attack on Southern Israel last weekend.
“The level of injuries to civilians, children, the elderly has never happened before,” said Dr. Shlomi Codish, CEO of Soroka, told The Post. “In the first 18 hours, we saw 700 people and treated them under fire – literally. Bombs were falling around us and air raid sirens were going off.”
Working 36-hour shifts, staff have seen the unimaginable.
“What kind of man shoots young women in their beds, in their sleep?” asked Codish. “We had a patient come in, wearing his pajamas after being shot in bed. What do they protect?
“A pregnant woman came in after being shot in the stomach,” Codish said. “She survived but the baby didn’t – killed in a terrorist attack before birth.”
The rate of patient arrivals is so great that doctors at the Soroka Medical Center, 25 miles from the Gaza Strip, handle patients wherever possible. Soroka Medical Center Soroka medical staff care for patients with severe injuries, including one who was shot in bed while he slept. Soroka Medical Center
Admissions were so intense that medical attention was given wherever possible.
“We performed surgery in the emergency department because the patient did not have time to go to the operating room,” he said. “Out of 700, 18 died.”
Adding to the pressure is the fact that doctors themselves have to leave family members — “In the Negev, which is a hot zone of terrorist attacks,” Codish says — knowing they could be killed or kidnapped by Hamas terrorists.
“All the time we are aware of staff members who have been killed or who are missing,” he added.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog visited the injured at the Soroka Medical Center.Soroka
Codish and his crew were experienced in dealing with battle injuries, but this was something else.
“In military events, soldiers wear protective gear,” Codish said. “Shots when you’re covered cause significant damage, but not significant injuries. For a young civilian, to be shot while enjoying a party, that doesn’t happen.”
Helicopters rushed some of the seriously injured to Soroka, while others arrived by ambulance – or however they could. “People are shooting in residential areas that can’t be reached by EMS going up the highway and being picked up by passing motorists,” Codish said. “People … walk for miles with gunshot wounds and get away from terrorists with assault rifles.”
Dr. Shlomi Codish, Soroka’s CEO, heard air raid sirens going off as she drove to the hospital, but she didn’t stop to take cover. Soroka Medical Center Patients were transported to Soroka by helicopter and 700 of them were evacuated, to make room for what staff feared would be a new round of injured citizens. Soroka Medical Center
A police officer, shot in both legs in the town of Ofaquim, “struggled to the street where he met an ambulance. He is lucky to be alive.”
Codish and his crew knew the victim would continue to struggle. “We flew out the first 700 to make room for the next wave,” the doctor said. “They came out with a fleet of helicopters, heading to hospitals further away from Gaza. We need to give space.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
