Stories From the Streets: United Hatzalah Women’s Unit Holds MCI Drill 

On a recent Tuesday evening in the valley of Emek Ha’Arazim between Mevaseret and Jerusalem, United Hatzalah of Israel held a mass-casualty incident training exercise for its Women’s Unit. The drill, planned in July, was surprisingly similar to a September bus accident that took place near Hurfeish. The drill simulated a bus of high school-age girls falling off a highway bridge and involved more than 100 simulated patients and more than 60 first responders from the unit, trained emergency medical service personnel ranging from EMTs to paramedics. 

“The primary task of the women’s unit is to provide a much-needed response to particularly delicate medical emergencies that are specific to women,” said Gitty Beer, founder of the Women’s Unit. “However, the members of the unit respond to all types of medical emergencies, regardless of type or gender of the patient, when they are the closest responder available. Volunteers from our unit were present at mass-casualty incidents in Meron, Givat Ze’ev, and Hurfeish and unfortunately have experience dealing with these types of events. The point of this evening was to hone their skills and provide the volunteers with an extra level of training working together as a unit.

“Our unit, which includes members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit, provides an extra element of care to an already traumatic situation. We’ve found that having a woman treat another woman makes the patient feel more comfortable, as the EMT understands the patient a little bit better than her male counterparts would,” Beer added.

Currently the Women’s Unit numbers some 150 volunteers, Jewish and Muslim, who serve their communities throughout Israel when an extra level of sensitivity is needed.

The training exercise, which included a significant amount of audiovisual technology and makeup to create a scenario that was as realistic as possible, was observed by members of the Knesset (Israel’s legislature) and community leaders. 

“I’m excited to be here to witness the women’s training drill United Hatzalah held today,” said Knesset member May Golan. “I am proud to see Israeli women from all over the country uniting to save lives. It is empowering, it is beautiful, and it is the essence of what Israel is all about. I want to congratulate these women for everything they do.”

“Today’s training exercise focused on women, and I very much respect the sensitivity shown among the unit overall, especially with regard to special sectors of the population, such as the Muslim community and the Ultra-Orthodox community,” said Knesset member Michal Woldiger. “Having women treat women who are having medical emergencies is very important, especially when it comes to sensitive and traumatic issues. The training I saw here today of all these women who are learning how to better care for others is inspiring. Their dedication and preparedness are praiseworthy.” 

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum added, “I have a lot of mixed feelings about being here. It is somewhat traumatic to see what an actual scenario could look like. It is chaos, and there is a lot of pain in the air. But I am very impressed with the innovative methods used to deal with these types of situations that United Hatzalah has developed. I am so inspired to see women who are Ultra-Orthodox, Muslim, secular, all the women in the country working together to do the most important thing in the world, to save lives. So I am shocked, moved, inspired, and thankful to be here.”

The MCI drill was the fourth United Hatzalah has held this year. President and founder Eli Beer explained why the organization is currently placing such an emphasis on these types of drills.

“I have no doubt the emphasis United Hatzalah places upon constantly training our volunteers, especially MCI training, resulted in lives being saved in the tragic instances that occurred in Meron, Givat Ze’ev, and Hurfeish. This is why we continue to conduct these exercises,” Beer said. “We want to give every one of our volunteers the opportunity to participate in these drills and experience the chaos that can occur during an MCI so they can learn how to make order out of it on every operational level. During an MCI the speed with which responders can make correct decisions can save many lives. This is true for each individual responder as well as for the larger operational decisions made during the incident. We need to be ready, because as history has shown us, sadly, the next MCI is not a question of if but when.” 

Raphael Poch is the international media spokesperson for United Hatzalah.