Monday, October 6, 2014

In case of chemical or biological attack . . .

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This parking area and roadway is where ambulances race in, where Shaare Zedek Hospital's emergency room doors open.


But it can also double as the decontamination area--see those water hoses above?
This being a religious hospital where modesty is respected, those green tarps can be unrolled to give a modicum of privacy, separating the naked men from the naked women. 

In the event (God forbid) of non-conventional warfare or terrorist attacks, victims must be washed off  before they enter the hospital, using water under pressure, to prevent chemical or biological agents from spreading to other patients.
The area can be converted in less than 30 minutes to a fully functional decontamination facility that can treat hundreds of victims per hour.
Shaare Zedek acts as the on-call facility for the entire Jerusalem area to respond to chemical warfare attacks.
 The decontamination area is the largest in Israel and is believed to be the largest in the world.

 Staff members have carried out a number of simulation exercises with the IDF's  Home Front Command.
Many foreign delegations also come to witness and to learn from these drills.
Our guide said such a demonstration can cost the hospital 20,000 shekels, but they are seldom reimbursed;  he shrugged his shoulders, meaning something like  "We do it as a mitsvah, a good and holy deed." 

Photo: Agencies

On September 15 some 20 senior Chinese officials took part in one of Shaare Zedek's drills, part of a disaster management workshop organised by the Emergency Medicine department at Ben Gurion University.
This is the first of many such workshops planned for the coming years, a statement from the university said.

See 3 more photos of the Chinese visitors at the ChinaDaily.
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Oi, may we never know such actual troubles.
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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

9 comments:

  1. What a sad world we live in that these places exist.

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  2. What a horrible world we live in :(

    But one thought. In case of a catastrophic attack, I think covering men's and women's state of undress would be the least of peoples' problems.

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  3. May G*D forbid! Good to see, Dina




    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= . <3 . >< } } (°>

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  4. Wow, that hospital is amazing. I hope those decontamination procedures will never be necessary! The last hospital I worked at was in Portland ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Health_%26_Science_University

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  5. Being prepared for the worst case scenario does make sense in your part of the world.

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  6. William is right, but I would say: "in every part of the world". Sad...

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  7. I am more pessimist than William: being prepared for the worst case scenario does make sense in any part of the world...

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  8. Huff!
    What have we done with this world..

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