Tragic irony

.

Our tour of Shaare Zedek Medical Center ended on a sad note when our guide showed us this photo at the entrance.
Dr. David Applebaum was director of the hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine.
On the night before his daughter Naava's wedding, father and daughter went out for coffee together in Jerusalem's Cafe Hillel for a heart-to-heart talk.
A suicide bomber entered and blew them up.
Five others were killed and 50 wounded.
That was in 2002, in the awful days of the Second Intifada.

Read about the great contributions Dr. Applebaum made in the twenty years after his aliyah from the USA, including these:

He founded the Terem Immediate Care Center, which revolutionized emergency care in Jerusalem by treating relatively minor injuries and ailments in a freestanding clinic, freeing up hospital emergency rooms to deal with more serious cases.
In 1986, Dr. Applebaum was presented with an award by the Knesset after treating terror victims at the scene of an attack on King George Street in Jerusalem while still under fire.
In 2002, Dr. Applebaum was appointed head of Shaare Zedek Medical Center's Department of Emergency Medicine and was viewed in Israel's medical community as one of the country's leaders in the field.
He introduced a number of groundbreaking changes to improve efficiency, and had extensive plans to continue this process following the completion of the new Weinstock Department of Emergency Medicine, which is now under construction.
He began to staff the department with emergency medicine specialists, rather than relying on specialists in the various departments of the hospital. He also introduced the computer tracking of patients, and was insistent on cutting waiting time to an absolute minimum.
When he was out of the hospital, he continued to monitor the treatment of each patient via a computer connection, even when he was abroad.

And here is another  article about him in the New York Times emphasizing the tragic irony, entitled "A Healer of Terror Victims Becomes One."
.
.
(Linking M for murder to ABC Wednesday.)

In case of chemical or biological attack . . .

.

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

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2014-09/16/content_18604628.htm

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.
.
.
Oi, may we never know such actual troubles.
.
.
(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)

Power trip

.
Let's see, where were we before Theme Day and holy days?
Oh right, we were touring the kishkes, the innards, of Shaare Zedek Medical Center  as part of  Jerusalem Houses from Within weekend.

Our guide, the director of engineering and logistics, led us down to the big hospital's electrical plant.

There was a whole row of these powerful-looking ... uh ... machines. (?)
UPDATE:  VP says they are generators.     Thanks, VP!

Everywhere is written DANGER.

Always ready for any emergency, the hospital makes a practice run once a week by switching over to generators for a short time.
The generators run on diesel fuel, not electricity.

Israel Electric Corporation made a line solely for Shaare Zedek.
The hospital plant's electricity comes in at a much higher voltage than regular customers receive.

In these "cages" are the transformers that convert the electricity to normal 220 volts.
Our guide warned us not to touch anything!
This plus the chart on the door showing how to resuscitate a person (presumably after   electrocution)  must have made my camera hands a bit shaky.
.
UPDATE: On their Facebook page, Shaare Zedek Medical Center Jerusalem just posted a sweet baby picture and said "Mazel tov to the families of the over 80 babies born at Shaare Zedek Medical Center during Yom Kippur."
Wow!
Indeed, with 21,000 births per year Shaare Zedek's maternity facility is the most active in the Western world!
.  

The heat-cold center

.

Our next station in our Jerusalem Houses From Within  guided tour of Shaare Zedek Medical Center was the heating/cooling  center which controls the air conditioning and heating and water systems of the big hospital.

The people who keep everything working well are so proud, they hang hospital flags among the boilers and pipes.
The little signs says that ear protection is a must.
Indeed,  the machines were very noisy down there.

The grey giant is a steam boiler.
These days, it is heated by electricity.

Should the hospital be cut off from its water supply by war or natural disaster, there are big reserve pools that hold enough water for 72 hours.
They are cleaned once a year. 

The all-important Control Room.
There is a back-up for every emergency break-down that might happen.
If something goes wrong with a machine or a computer, e-mails and SMSs go out immediately to call in the appropriate technician and man in charge, night or day, Shabbat or weekday.
.
(Linking to OurWorld Tuesday.)
.

LOX

.

Even more essential to a Jewish hospital than lox and bagels are these tall tanks of LOX, liquid oxygen.

UPDATE:   Forgot to tell you--the oxygen tanks are ready for any earthquake!
.
There is something I found online today that should be added to yesterday's post. 
On my tour of the hospital I saw one of the women referred to below  at her work station, but didn't feel right about taking a picture.
Now I am glad to read this and to understand:

...one department’s volunteers were singled out for special recognition. This year, the department was Sterile Supplies, and the volunteers who were recognized are indeed very special.  
They are volunteering for Shaare Zedek under the auspices of the Aleh Siach organization, whose goal is to help developmentally-challenged individuals to achieve self-fulfillment and independence. 
The four young women, who were trained by an Aleh Siach counselor, prepare the sterile supplies required for surgery.  
“The pride they take in a job well-done is a wonder to behold,” says Segev.

The same article (from 2001) tells about the hundreds of volunteers who work at the medical center:

Volunteer Services director Nehama Segev says that when her professional colleagues in other organizations discuss the issue of how to attract volunteers, she has nothing to suggest.  “We don’t have that problem.  We have more volunteers than anywhere, without ever advertising.  I think there’s something magnetic about Shaare Zedek. This place radiates human warmth, without in any way compromising medical standards.”

.

Autoclaves and dedicated personnel + bonus rap video

.
As explained in the previous post, Shaare Zedek medical center offered two well-guided tours of their engineering and logistics facilities last week.
Today I'll show you their sterilization unit.

The hospital recently spent 20 million shekels (almost five and a half million dollars) to upgrade to this Swedish  Getinge Automation System.
Here some 50 of us curious Israelis were standing in the "dirty room" to which the used medical instruments are brought.

 
Wash-carts are put into these sophisticated "dish-washers."

Even a whole trolley can go through for disinfection.

The wash cycle in action.

The in-charge staff responsible for keeping everything sterile.
They did, however, allow us tourists to cross over into the "clean room" without suiting up in gowns, hats, and booties.

Every scissors and surgical instrument must be arranged in order, counted, and accounted for.
You know the old "joke" about surgeons forgetting something inside the patient . . . 

 Another machine.
With so many people clustered around our guide in such small quarters, it was hard for me to see and hear everything, to take notes and to photograph at the same time.
Why do the tallest and widest men always rush to the front and stay there, instead of giving the others a chance to see better? -- I really should work on improving my elbowing skills. 

It was Friday noon and all the non-essential staff were already on their way home to prepare for the Sabbath.
Shaare Zedek is a religious hospital.

The end product is carefully wrapped, labeled, and coded packages of germ-free instruments ready to be sent to the proper wards.
.
DON'T MISS this funny rap video about the importance of hand-washing starring Shaare Zedek hospital doctors and nurses!!! 
.

Shaare Zedek's smokeless smokestack

.

The smokestack of Shaare Zedek hospital is cold and clean and useless.
It once carried particles and smoke high up (and hopefully away)  into Jerusalem's sky.
But nowadays, in our era of increasing greenness, the huge medical center uses a closed circuit system of pipes instead.

It would cost millions to take the chimney down, so up it stays.
Which is a shame because it can be seen for miles and miles around.
An eyesore, in my opinion. 
Not to mention that for many Jews any tall and stark chimney is a grim reminder of the Shoah (see my post "O the Chimneys").

Last week Jerusalem had her annual Houses From Within weekend.
One of the guided tours I took into normally inaccessible places was a walk down to and through the kishkes (the innards) of Shaare Zedek.
It was led by Gadi,  Director of Logistics and Engineering.
The tour was offered twice last Friday and about 100 curious Israelis learned a lot that day. 

I will show you more in the coming days. 

(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
.

41st Psalm

.
For the weekly PsalmChallenge that Robert Geiss in Athens challenges us with, here is my illustrated Psalm 41.


1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

Blessed is he who considers the poor! The LORD delivers him in the day of trouble; 2 the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.


3 The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against thee!"

5 My enemies say of me in malice: "When will he die, and his name perish?"

6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers mischief; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. 7 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. 8 They say, "A deadly thing has fastened upon him; he will not rise again from where he lies."
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But do thou, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them! 11 By this I know that thou art pleased with me, in that my enemy has not triumphed over me. 12 But thou hast upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in thy presence for ever.

13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. .
.
This week I used the Revised Standard Version translation.
The Hebrew original and a different English translation are here.
.
In Jewish usage the Book of Psalms is divided, after the analogy of the Pentateuch, into five books, each closing with a doxology or benediction.

In his study of Psalm 41 Rabbi Segal says this:

"The last verse is widely understood to conclude the first book of Psalms. Each of the first four books ends with such a doxology (statement of praise). . . .
'Amen' (last verse) is a term of confirmation ('verily, truly').
Although it appears elsewhere in the Bible, in Psalms it is found exclusively in the doxologies that end the first four books (Psalms 41, 72, 89, and 106)."

PHOTOS:
1. An old synagogue door with an arrow pointing to the slot through which you can give anonymous charity (tsdaka).
2. An old photo (exhibited at the new Shaare Zedek) shows windows of the old Shaare Zedek hospital on Jaffa Road covered by wooden beams for protection against the constant shelling during the War of Independence, 1948.
3. A nameless grave in Tel Aviv's historic Trumpeldor cemetery. The marker says only "Po nikbar galmud" meaning something like "Here lies someone who had no one."
During Turkish times (i.e. before 1917) a plague killed so many that no one knew all the names of the dead.
4. Kneading dough for a monastery's daily bread.
.

Concocting a cure

.
Who knew simple glass bowls could make such interesting shadows.
Good ones to share at Shadow Shot Sunday.
.
It pays to enlarge this photo and read about how a prince in A Thousand and One Nights was miraculously cured by a concoction of ingredients bought in the spice-handlers market in old Jerusalem.
.
This display is part of the Materia Medica exhibit in Shaare Zedek Hospital.
.
Although I can't find proof, I imagine Spicehandler is an old Jewish name.
American Rabbi Ezra Spicehandler comes to mind.
.
Till today the Arab souk of the Old City has big spice shops full of exotic and fragrant spices and incense.
.

"For good, for a blessing, for healing, and for life"

.
Bar-Ilan University, Yad Ben-Zvi institute, and Shaare Zedek Hospital have put together a fascinating exhibit in the entrance hall of the hospital.
.
It is called Materia Medica in the History of Jerusalem.
.
Please enlarge the photo to read about this exhibit of traditional medical substances down through the ages.
.
I'll be showing you different examples over the coming weeks.
.

Shaare Zedek original doors

.
These doors do not open in the physical sense.
But the fact that they are mounted on the wall invites us to open ourselves to their history.
.
The doors have a new home in the lobby of the new Shaare Zedek Hospital in the Bayit Vagan neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The two plaques on the threshold explain where they came from.

They were the original doors in the first Shaare Zedek Hospital, from when it was built in 1902 until it moved to the new facility in 1979.

There is even a camel caravan going down Jaffa Road in this photo of Shaare Zedek from around 1902!
.
I hope you enjoyed your tour for That's My World Tuesday and for Monday Doors.
.

A reflection behind bars

.
The venerable building reflected in another old, but not so famous, house was once Sha'are Zedek Hospital.
The hospital moved to a larger facility in 1980.
After renovations were completed in 1999, the Israel Broadcasting Authority moved in.
.
I took the picture for James' Weekend Reflections.
.
Shabbat shalom to all.
.