Israeli First Responders Share Expertise

The Fellowship  |  January 14, 2019

Whenever disaster or catastrophe strikes around the globe, you can bet that Israel is among the first nations to respond with aid and expertise. Our friends at Arutz Sheva share this story of Israeli friendship, one in which Israeli first-response teams are sharing their expertise in emergency situations with colleagues in India and Sri Lanka:

“It is eye-opening to see how emergency response systems work in different countries and how much we can share with one another and learn from each other,” said Vice President of Operations for United Hatzalah Dov Maisel who is leading the mission. “The teams in India are professional and are excellent at providing assistance. They even had a few fire rescue motorcycles which are similar to what we use in Israel to arrive at emergencies faster. We are adding to their already existing knowledge base numerous styles of emergency triage and disaster management from a number of different angles as our team is comprised of EMS experts and well as some of Israel’s elite Search and Rescue professionals who have been at disasters all over the globe…”

After the second day into the 12-day mission, Maisel said that the trip has been educational in both directions. “We came here to teach the styles of emergency management and interoperability between agencies that we use in Israel. We were asked to come by local officials after they toured our Dispatch and Command Center in Jerusalem last year. While the point of the mission is for us to train the local teams here with our skill set, they have been incredibly receptive of the material and have taught us a few techniques that we hope to bring back to Israel as well. International partnerships such as these are always opportunities to both teach and learn new ways of doing things more efficiently and helping patients in both countries faster and in a more effective manner…”