By Annaliese Johnson

Israel is widely known today for its advanced medical facilities and research centers, to the point that many foreigners come here as “medical tourists” to receive treatments in Israeli hospitals. But sometimes these hospitals run short on key medical equipment needed just to serve Israel’s own growing population.

Recently, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem provided life-saving equipment to the emergency room of the Kaplan Medical Center, one of Israel’s leading and busiest hospitals, located in the city of Rehovot. Kaplan’s emergency room is considered the “heartbeat” of the hospital.

The Kaplan Medical Center was originally formed out of army barracks in 1953 to serve 50,000 residents, but now it provides services for approximately one million Israelis. Currently run by Dr. Tarif Bader, a highly respected medical professional from the Druze community, the hospital serves many Holocaust survivors, forty percent of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, a significant portion of the country’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, and various minority groups. In addition to providing services for Israel’s diverse population, the hospital also treats Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Dr. Tarif is no stranger to high influxes of patients and trauma. Prior to his role at the hospital, he served in the Israel Defense Forces, where he was responsible for the medical care offered to wounded Syrians crossing the Israeli border during the Syrian civil war. (This was part of the IDF’s “Operation Good Neighbor” initiative which the ICEJ also participated in.) However, with the steadily growing population within Israel, the emergency room at Kaplan hospital needed to acquire and upgrade certain missing or old equipment to properly care for their patients.

Thanks to your generous donations, the ICEJ was able to donate a blood warmer and three defibrillators. The blood warmer, which can warm blood to body temperature in 35 seconds, helps greatly with saving lives every day. Meantime, the defibrillators give off electric impulses that can be the difference between life and death, as in seconds they can revitalize the lives of individuals suffering from cardiac arrest.

The final gift, a special lighting needed for surgical procedures, will soon arrive. For victims of car accidents and other traumas whose care requires focused and specific lighting, this device is a game changer. Prior to this donation, surgeons were sometimes left with no alternative but to use phone flashlights as they dealt with these injuries.

“We really, really thank you. The equipment is really easy to use. And it helps us save lives”, assured Dr. Arkadi Shkaliar, the doctor in charge of the emergency room.

Indeed, these gifts help reduce the doctors’ stress, while the ease of operating the devices helps ensure critical and timely care for all patients who enter the emergency room. In addition, in response to a severe shortage of qualified medical professionals in Israel, the ICEJ is sponsoring a recertification program for new immigrant doctors which brings more medical professionals into the field. We are proud to help improve medical services in Israel, as well as to contribute towards bridging urgent personnel gaps that can aid in preventing burn-out of dedicated Israeli medical professionals.

These contributions to Israel’s medical field are part of the ICEJ’s “Future and Hope” initiative, which seeks to provide aid and assistance to every sector of Israeli society in practical and meaningful ways – whether old or young, Jew or Arab, native-born or new arrival.

Please consider partnering with us today to provide and care for more Israeli lives. Donate at: give.icej.org/givinghope