Why There Are No Ambulances In Jerusalem

We Will We Will We Will that of course is the unmistakable sound of an ambulance siren when you're driving that sound means pulling over waiting and thinking really hard about whether you left the oven on when you're at home it means gawking at the neighbor getting wheeled away after doing a hilarious epic fail backflip that led to them hilariously dying painfully in front of their friends and family but when you're in central Jerusalem this sound could precede the arrival of something else entirely as there are no traditional ambulances anywhere in Old Jerusalem but and you'll never believe this it turns out in a place that's been in an ongoing let's call it Conflict for the past Century medical emergencies do occur which begs the question how do people get to the hospital in a place without a single wee-woo wagon well the problem is mainly logistical and has to do with the fact that Jerusalem City Center predates all modern Transportation even the horse and buggy the city was founded in 3000 BCE its Builders weren't particularly focused on making an ambulance accessible and thus many of its Central streets are only suitable for travel by foot well this might be what every urbanist YouTube creator or dreams of it's a living nightmare for First Responders many of the city's most popular streets and religious sites where thousands of tourists could potentially slip on a banana peel and crack their head open on the very ground where Jesus sneezed are narrow or one way only or so circuitous because buildings have gotten taller and more slanted on thousand-year-old foundations that aren't really up to fire code but because ripping up all the buildings in the place that's sacred to the world's three biggest religions you can put in big fat streets would lead to what religious Scholars call a real bad time the streets remain narrow and thus can't handle traditional ambulances so what happens if someone needs emergency care in Jerusalem do they simply hope one of Israel's few remaining Samaritans will show up and do something super on the nose not exactly the solution lies in a coordinated operation of EMTs and small Vehicles say there's a person experiencing a medical emergency at the Western Wall located here which sees thousands of tourists every day with most of it only accessible by foot in the minutes after calling for help two organizations that coordinate over half of all the city's emergency responses or 1 million calls each year would be involved thousands of volunteer EMTs trained in pre-hospital care walked the streets and can be called upon at any minute to help most under the United hatzala of Israel it 100 volunteer operated organization that works with Israel's National EMT service Magan David Adam or MDA which then dispatches paramedics and Hospital Transportation a one-two punch of EMTs and paramedics for Jerusalem residents united hatzala's life Compass system then alerts the closest volunteers to the situation and whether they're working shopping or enjoying some of the world's greatest challah they respond immediately on average arriving three minutes after dispatch when they get the call EMTs will realize they can't reach the person quickly by traditional ambulance so they travel via e-bike ambulance to navigate through the walls of massive crowds to narrow sidewalks and will stabilize the patient until MDA responders arrive on scene usually 8 to 15 minutes thereafter while some of United hatzala's EMTs are certified to transport people to hospitals in Jerusalem that responsibility falls under the mda's purview so in our hypothetical when the mda's paramedics arrive they'll realize that the closest hospital is St Louis French Hospital which is only a half mile or full kilometer away on foot but two miles or three kilometers away by car so they'll take an Ambu cycle ultimately getting our hypothetical patients to a hypothetical Hospital in just 15 hypothetical minutes so they can be treated for whatever their hypothetical ailment is Just for kicks let's say it was something funny like a catastrophic heart attack interestingly this seemingly specialized system isn't just confined to Israel versions of it exist all over the world from New York to other non-new York cities that I've been told exist the United hatzala of Israel is only one of many volunteer EMT Services under the name hatzala which apart from being one of the many words I've been mispronouncing all video is also a word that refers to the sanctity of life in the Jewish faith the concept of hotzala is so powerful that according to the talmud or judaism's book of religious law people who observe the sabbath can break their observance to help Preserve hudzaba in accordance with this belief hutzala volunteer EMT organizations provide medical care to Millions perhaps the most widespread being their New York City structure established in 1965 by orthodox Jewish members to support yada speaking Hasidic communities which now provides medical service to over 50 neighborhoods in NYC itself as well as cities around the state encompassing EMTs doctors dispatchers and paramedics who collectively make up the nation's largest non-profit ambulance service today there are thousands of hotzalo organizations around the world who answer an estimated 70 000 calls per year and operate independently of each other but all with the same Mission sort of like educational YouTubers but instead of all telling you about the principality of Sealand it's more about all treating anyone who needs help regardless of religion or ability to pay likewise mag and David Adam has become an international player while mag and David Adam may sound like the name of a soccer player you'd pretend to have heard of it's actually Israel's own Red Cross organization responsible for humanitarian law and operating under the Geneva Convention a somewhat interesting distinction given that technically MDA is a part of the Israeli Defense Forces a group best known for their creative interpretation of the word defense as Israel's emergency medical services provider they build and operate Israel's hospitals train nurses and provide rural ambulance services across mountains deserts and bodies of water sometimes by helicopter and oversee a Litany of Medical Services throughout the country plus operate its National blood bank but their services aren't limited to Israel as they now send EMTs to volunteer in crises where medical services are most needed given they're a member of the International Red Cross and have even begun marking themselves as a four-hire EMT service to organizations and countries wanting to shore up their emergency services so if you're a country looking to beef up your emergency response capabilities contact Megan David Adam and mention code Hai it won't get you a discount or anything but it will confuse them and that'll be kind of funny right what's less funny is inflation right kinda sucks well our sponsor upside can't influence monetary policy and solve our economic woes it can help you stretch your dollar further on purchases you're already making pretty simply they offer cash back on purchases at businesses around you for example my favorite local Thai restaurant was on there so I checked in by pressing one button and got 13 cash back on the purchase I'd probably have made regardless that means I can eat out more often or just save a little money for the future and all I had to do is use their app it's really worth checking out what offers they have around you because you're probably just throwing money away at restaurants grocery stores gas stations and more by not using outside so download the free upside app and use code half to get five dollars or more cash back on your first purchase of 10 or more

Channel: Half as Interesting

Views: 696,396

Keywords:

Id: 8w_wcJHRzck

Length: 6min 20sec (380 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022