“Angles in White” were the words Israel’s Minister of Health, Yuli Edelstein, used to describe the dedicated medical team he met at Shamir Medical Centre (Assah Harofeh’s) Coronavirus Unit. 

As Israel continues to grapple with a second wave of COVID-19 cases, officials reached out to the hospital for insights and access to the critical work being done on the frontlines.

“Nothing is as effective as seeing it for yourself,” explains Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach, Director General of Shamir Medical Centre, who led the minister through a number of departments, including The Emergency Ward, one of Israel’s busiest, due to the large catchment area the hospital serves.

As the number of hospitalized COOVID-19 patients continues to rise, Dr. Levtzion-Korach shares how important the visit was for understanding the challenges faced by frontline workers:

“Even at the first stage of personal protection, it all seems simple. You put on a mask, you wear a gown and you go in. But once you do it yourself, you begin to understand how complex, uncomfortable, and hot it is. We were only walking around the unit, not even treating patients, or washing or lifting them. Only once you’ve experienced it, can you begin to understand how the whole issue of protection is not a trivial matter at all.”  

The Minister spent time speaking to patients in the ward, who were relatively younger- in their 40s, 50s and 60s. One patient, a young professional engineer, shared; “I came back from the dead.” He battled the virus for weeks in hospital and thanked the medical team for helping him pull through.

Reflecting on his visit, the Minister shared: 

“Today, for the first time, I myself entered the Coronavirus Ward at Shamir Medical Centre- of course, armed with the best protective equipment possible. It was not an easy experience.  It felt terribly hot and humid inside the overalls. I only experienced it for one hour of one day. Imagine what the doctors and nurses who work 24/7 in the Corona Wards must feel. Israel’s medical professionals are truly incredible.”

Photo Credit:  Itzik Biron

Dr. Fortunato Ben-Arroch, a senior physician at the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress

Dr. Fortunato Ben-Arroch, a senior physician at the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, and the center staff have been busy during the COVID-19 pandemic working with families to cope with the fallout of the pandemic, and helping them find ways to reduce friction amongst each other, keep routines, and deal with stress.

To read the full article, and learn about how the team at the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress helped *Motti, *Mali, and their children, click here.

*Names changed for confidentiality

Dr. Jessica Ross, a fourth year pediatric resident at the Shamir Medical Centre (Assaf Harofeh), shares her journey from New York to Tel Aviv, and why she feels lucky and safer in Israel at the frontline of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“I always loved Israel and was delighted when I got accepted to The Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University. I had a great experience as a student and wanted to stay on after graduation.  Israel felt right for me. I also met my husband during my last year of studies. He’s originally from New Zealand and we now live in Tel Aviv with our three-year-old daughter.

I did my residency at different hospitals, including an elective at Shamir Medical Centre (Assaf Harofeh). I grew to love the warm and supportive working environment, especially in Pediatrics. I’ve spent a lot of time in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and seen first-hand how it has transitioned from an old and outdated unit to a state of the art department, thanks to the generous support of CHW.

You can’t compare the old facility with the new Debbie Eisenberg and Gary Levene PICU. The children that arrive can now be treated in separate rooms with dignity, alongside the best medical equipment and care. The feeling you get when you enter the department is incredible. We are all very proud of it. The working environment feels top quality and I believe the quality of care has gone up as well. 

The new facility also caters to our needs as a team. We now have a proper space for morning meetings with screens so we can continue to monitor our patients. I feel like many of our worries are gone and we can now focus on what is most important- our patients. When you have a professional and even a beautiful environment, it pushes you to do your best.

Of course, everything has changes since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic! The entire hospital has been preparing for and implementing a massive scale up. All our protocols have changed and our experienced staff are working together with other departments to help fight the virus.

It has been especially difficult to treat children during this period, as they don’t have typical symptoms. In fact, most are asymptomatic. We have to treat all children with a fever as ‘suspected’ Coronavirus cases until we can test and confirm otherwise. We set up a special Pediatric COVID-19 Ward but thankfully the children we have treated have not been critically ill. 

The Pediatrics Department is a very special place. I feel very supported by my colleagues- they’re like family. The majority of us are women- a lot of powerful women! Our main challenge is to ensure we’re not all on maternity leave at the same time!

I feel very lucky to be in Israel right now. I think Israel is taking all the necessary precautions to ‘flatten the curve’. It feels much safer here than in America. I’m very worried about my parents and grandparents in New York- the epicenter of the pandemic. 

Like many frontline workers, I’m juggling a lot right now. My priority is to stay safe and keep my family safe. My husband is incredibly supportive and busy caring for our daughter who is at home during the lock-down. We also have a strong community of friends around us. 

We’re so thankful.”

Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) – Mount Scopus campus. After a tiring shift, Dr. Momen Abbasi, 29, is working on his latest creation. It’s a cartoon of Little Red Riding Hood staying home, rather than risking infection or infecting her grandma with coronavirus.

“I use my drawings to spruce up what are often dull medical PowerPoint presentations,” says Abbasi from his home in the Beit Tzafafa, a neighborhood in Jerusalem. “They are also useful when showing children and adults parts of their body before a procedure so they know precisely what’s going to happen.”

From an early age, Abbasi was undecided between his passion for art and desire to become a doctor. At Hadassah Hospital, he’s found a home for both his skills.

Abbasi grew up in Silwan, a hillside Arab neighborhood near Jerusalem’s Old City. His father is the managing director of Al-Quds newspaper and his mother – a chemistry teacher. Abbasi loved playing video games and was fascinated by the animations, as he moved his avatars around colorful digital worlds.

“I never studied animation, but started drawing in sixths grade. Using programs like Photoshop and Flash, I gradually learned how to build characters,” he says.

All three of his older siblings went into medicine or dentistry. Abbasi studied medicine in Jordan, and returned in 2015 to work at HMO, where he is an intern with a focus in nephrology.

“My first corona-related drawing was a hat-tip to the medical teams in Hubei, China – a medical knight, fighting the epidemic.”

As the virus came closer to home, so did Abassi’s drawings – trying to advise the public on best practices.

Once we are over the corona crisis, Abbasi hopes to further develop his artistic work to help HMO.

“I love this hospital. Mount Scopus is like one big family. What I’m considering doing with my artwork down the road is to use it with Hadassah medical students – for example by creating flashcards to make nephrology study a little less dry. I also want to deepen the use of drawings with patients. You can see it helps put them at ease.”

In February 2020, a story about an Israeli parent whose child was saved at The Debbie Eisenberg and Gary Levene Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at the Shamir Medical Centre (Assaf Harofeh), went viral. The family’s heartwarming experience in the midst of a difficult battle to save an innocent life touched so many people who were compelled to share the story on their social media.

The little boy was rushed to the PICU with obstructed breathing. He was admitted and received a life-saving procedure by the operating doctor who was called from home to deal with this medical emergency. When describing the situation, the boy’s father recalls that he “witnessed the sacrifices that medical professionals make each day and the dedication of countless doctors, nurses, and accompanying staff.”

With unrest surrounding the political elections, the boy’s father remembers feeling relieved as the hateful discourse remained outside the hospital doors. Instead, what he witnessed in The Shamir Medical Centre (Assah Harofeh) was a miracle of diversity, where the importance of attending to every patient transcended politics and religion.

Bemused, the father explained: “Over the course of several nurse shift changes, we had the most incredible people attending to my son’s needs. There was an older woman with a Russian accent, an Orthodox Jewish nurse, and another originally from Morocco. Every single one of them took care of my baby as if he was their own! Witnessing the care and affection my child was shown by the staff in this difficult time has added joy and optimism to our otherwise perilous situation.”

The father was grateful for the high level of medical proficiency and that the team worked together to save his son’s life, but he was particularly astonished by the diversity of the staff, all of whom represent a microcosm of the Israeli society. Seeing Christians, Jews, and Muslims of different backgrounds and views work together and put the lives of children before any external pressures of political or racial discourse, helped him trust the team attending to his son’s life even more so. He expressed that people who do things from their heart, are not defined by their differences, but by their actions and care they show to others.

Although the little boy still had a few more days remaining at the hospital when the story was posted, the father shared his belief in the capable caring hands of the medical staff at The Shamir Medical Centre (Assaf Harofeh). With a renewed faith in humanity, he is encouraged about being part of the diverse and beautiful Israeli society, where people are people and will do anything to bring the best out in each other!