HEALTH AFFAIRS: Many paramedics and first responders from Magen David Adom, who handled the wounded on October 7, 2023, stay haunted by the reminiscences.
Because the two-year anniversary of October 7 passes, Israel continues to be reeling in shock, and the deadly wounds of that day stay painfully uncooked. Households of victims, hostages, and fallen troopers proceed to navigate the lengthy and troublesome therapeutic course of.
Alongside them, many paramedics and first responders who handled the wounded stay haunted by the reminiscences. Amongst these, Magen David Adom paramedics have been instrumental in saving numerous lives. Now, two years later, their reflections provide a strong glimpse into the tragedy and its lasting affect.
Zvi Tibber: ‘I didn’t assume twice’
Zvi Tibber, a senior MDA volunteer paramedic, hi-tech skilled, and married father of three, recalled the harrowing occasions of that day.
Like most Israelis, he was woke up by sirens at 6:30 a.m. When MDA known as and requested if he was ready to go to the South, he responded “after all” and jumped into his ambulance with out hesitating.
“I didn’t assume twice,” he advised The Jerusalem Put up.
ZVI TIBBER stands subsequent to a Magen David Adom ambulance. (credit score: MDA)
Along with one other ambulance driver from his yishuv (neighborhood), Alfei Menashe, Tibber set off for Ofakim in an armored ambulance, listening to information studies in an try to grasp the unfolding disaster. However the true extent of the horror was unimaginable.
Inside minutes of arriving, they started treating the wounded. Their first affected person was a police officer with a extreme bullet wound to the hand. Tibber managed to cease the bleeding.
One other officer was struggling an enormous panic assault, after combating terrorists for hours. Contained in the ambulance, he was lastly capable of launch all of the stress he’d been holding on to. “I used to be certain I wouldn’t survive at the present time,” he advised Tibber. “I’ve been combating since 7 a.m.” It was 11 a.m. at this level.
Tibber managed to calm the person however couldn’t transport him to a hospital, as intensive care was reserved just for probably the most severely wounded.
One other affected person was a reservist who was touring with a pal when terrorists opened hearth on his automotive. They managed to flee the automotive and attain Ofakim whereas the terrorists continued taking pictures at them. The reservist had a critical again wound and was bleeding closely. Tibber transported him to Soroka Medical Middle, Beersheba, and known as the person’s spouse, telling her to fulfill them there.
All through the day, Tibber and his colleague made repeated journeys between Ofakim and Soroka. By night, they moved towards Gaza, evacuating the wounded from close by yishuvim and transferring them to helicopters. Tibber additionally needed to determine many our bodies, lots of which had been mutilated in methods he nonetheless can’t fathom.
“There was a taking pictures. How may a physique appear to be this?” he stated. “I simply couldn’t think about how somebody may do that to somebody who had already died or whereas they have been dying.”
Two years later: ‘Might I’ve completed extra?’
When requested how he feels now, two years later, or how October 7 has modified him, Tibber stated that it was a posh query. “Now we have all moved on with our lives, however we’re nonetheless residing within the shadow of the battle, which has been happening for 2 years already, together with all of the challenges, just like the Iran battle.”
He pressured that the ordeal isn’t over, as 48 hostages are nonetheless being held captive. “We actually wish to attain closure, but it surely’s unimaginable whereas the hostages are nonetheless there.”
On that fateful day, Tibber knew there have been terrorists, and that their ambulance might be hit by Hamas RPGs. However he may by no means have anticipated the total scale of the horror. The continuing battle has pressured him to replicate and face powerful questions, equivalent to may he have completed extra?
When requested how October 7 modified how MDA operates, Tibber stated that it has elevated the group’s stage of preparedness. It now has higher sources, improved tools, and is aware of learn how to determine personnel for emergency conditions.
Residing in an remoted neighborhood himself, he stated that neither MDA nor the yishuvim have been adequately ready. His ambulance wasn’t geared up for treating a couple of or two sufferers, forcing a number of journeys to Soroka to replenish his provides. Soroka itself was working low on sources. “We needed to handle as a lot as we may.”
At the moment, he stated, MDA is prepared for risks far past what anybody may have imagined earlier than October 7.
Though he doesn’t personally attend remedy or help teams, Tibber shared that talking about his expertise helps him. Because the assault, he has shared his story a number of instances on behalf of MDA.
Dr. Shafir Botner
Dr. Shafir Botner, director of MDA’s Paramedic College and a senior member of the elite Medevac Helicopter and ECMO Unit, helps certify about 650 paramedics yearly. The medevac unit operates two emergency helicopters from hubs in northern and southern Israel, whereas the ECMO Unit makes MDA one of many few emergency organizations worldwide to make use of this superior know-how.
On October 7, Botner was at residence when the sirens went off. “Like all people else, I awoke from the sirens. It took just some minutes to understand this was no false alarm.”
After seeing the studies, he placed on his uniform – “as I all the time do,” he stated – and headed south, as directed by a colleague.
On the Sde Teiman junction, Botner confronted a alternative, which, in hindsight, could have in the end saved his life: flip proper to Ofakim or left to Beersheba. Selecting Beersheba, pondering he might be extra environment friendly there, he headed left. Wanting again, he stated, “We likely wouldn’t be talking proper now,” had he chosen to move to Ofakim.
Botner spent a number of hours helping the dispatch heart in Beersheba earlier than he was known as to Sde Teiman and requested to organize a 3rd helicopter for evacuations – a uncommon request, as MDA normally operates solely two. Inside minutes, Botner and his colleague have been treating three severely wounded troopers. Over the following 72 hours, from Shabbat morning till Monday night, he and his colleague evacuated and handled casualties all through the Negev and a few in central Israel, too.
A near-death expertise
On Monday night, Botner was transporting three sufferers from the helipad at Barzilai Medical Middle in Ashkelon to the Middle when he abruptly heard an enormous explosion that shook the whole helicopter violently.
“It felt like being inside a spinning washer. It lasted 30-40 seconds however felt like eternally,” he stated. Believing they’d been hit by a missile, he thought, It’s over for us.
Later he discovered {that a} missile had been intercepted simply above them and {that a} piece of shrapnel had hit the plane and damaged a blade off, practically tearing the helicopter aside.
In some way, whereas this was occurring, Botner managed to name for assist. “I requested for ambulances to return, as a result of in a couple of seconds I used to be going to be the one who wanted an ambulance.”
Information unfold shortly on social media. His daughter, an MDA medic, noticed studies that an MDA helicopter had been hit. Understanding that her father was on a helicopter, she known as him repeatedly in a panic. Finally, he managed to reply and reassure her that he was alright.
That was when he knew he needed to go residence to see his household, stated Botner. After 72 hours within the subject, Botner returned residence, solely to return to the helipad the next day. “We knew that if we didn’t proceed flying then, we could by no means fly once more.”
A brand new perspective
Two years later, Botner continues to be piecing collectively what occurred, and has a complete new understanding of the importance and that means behind this well-known Jewish saying “Whoever saves one soul, it’s as if he saved a complete world.”
He shared a number of poignant tales illustrating this newfound perspective. One night time, his brother-in-law, a policeman, visited a colleague who had been severely wounded on October 7. All the person remembered was being evacuated by helicopter. Botner acknowledged him immediately from a photograph; it seems that he had handled this man. “He was in such a nasty situation,” Botner recalled. “He begged me, ‘Maintain me alive. I’ve a brand new child.’”
Botner associated one other story through which he discovered that the three Counterterrorism Unit troopers he had handled on October 7 later took half within the daring rescue of hostages Luis Har and Fernando Marman from Gaza. A colleague of theirs, now a pupil in Botner’s paramedic faculty, sought him out to personally thank him for saving his associates.
In one other incident, this time through the Iran battle, Botner responded to a missile strike in Beersheba. Contained in the broken constructing, he noticed a policeman rescuing somebody. The policeman turned out to be a person he had handled on October 7. Right here he was, a 12 months and a half later, alive and saving others.
“These encounters reaffirm how essential my job actually is, educating and getting ready paramedics,” Botner stated. “Who is aware of who they may save sooner or later?”
When requested how October 7 has modified him or how he works, Botner stated that it has made him view emergency conditions solely in another way. In his 20 years as a paramedic, he not often paused to consider the dangers or of what he was abandoning each time he responded to a name. Now, he’s extra conscious of the risks and of the significance of household.
MDA has lengthy been considered among the many world’s most superior emergency providers. However nothing may have ready it for the horrors of October 7. In accordance with Botner, the unprecedented occasions of that fateful day have pushed MDA to a wholly new stage. Now, the group is healthier geared up, higher educated, and has improved its procedures. “We’re at a totally completely different stage now than we have been on October 7. Completely. Sadly.”
The trauma of that day additionally sparked an increase in psychological well being challenges throughout Israel. In gentle of this, Botner highlighted that MDA has expanded its providers to supply energetic help to frontline responders in addition to dispatchers and others deeply affected.
“We aren’t leaving this topic on the facet. It’s crucial. It’s a protracted course of, and we’re not even in the course of it,” he stated.
For Botner, sharing his experiences has grow to be a type of remedy, particularly as he grasps simply how significant his work is.
He additionally emphasised the important position of paramedics in Israel and famous a stunning development: since October 7, many extra folks – army and civilian – have enrolled in paramedic coaching. Regardless of the trauma of what so many endured, the need to assist others has solely grown stronger.
Because the nation continues to heal from the injuries of October 7, the tales of paramedics like Zvi Tibber and Dr. Shafir Botner stand as highly effective testaments to braveness, resilience, and the enduring dedication to avoid wasting lives towards all odds.
