\u201cWe woke up at 6:30 a.m to sirens in the south. We realized that there was an unusual situation. Amit Man z.l, a friend of mine since we were youth volunteers, was working at Kibbutz Be’eri and I talked to her throughout the day, from the morning. She explained to me what was going on with her and I tried to help her and talk as much as possible. At 2p.m. she stopped answering. I realized that I had lost contact with her. And I went to the station.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole-time I hoped that she was still alive but I realized the chances were not in our favor. I opened an intensive care ambulance in Netivot and drove off. At first there were many bodies lying on the side of the road. We drove towards Be’eri and received wounded. We opened a triage station at Shuva Junction, just a few minutes away from kibbutzim that were attacked – Be’eri, Sa’ad and Re’im – and provided life-saving treatment to soldiers and civilians.
\n\u201cWe opened five field stretchers spread out side by side, next to each stretcher was medical equipment – a BVM (for ventilation), oxygen, intubation set, bandages, tourniquets, IV lines. Floodlights on both sides to lights the area. IDF Soldiers were on guard duty. A table where we spread out extra equipment, bandages, medicines, anesthetics, and any equipment we did not bring at that beginning. \u201cThe army linked us to 669 (Search and Rescue) IDF Helicopter Unit and the forces that came from inside, so we knew how to prepare for the number of casualties. The wounded were with us for 10 minutes. We stabilized their condition and they were immediately taken to the hospitals mainly by helicopter, some by ambulances.
\n\u201cThere were times when we had to move from place to place because there were terrorists on the way to us with motorcycles; we had to settle down a bit. There were constant sounds of explosions and gunshots but we stayed.
\n\u201cAt that, moment I hadn\u2019t thought of what would happen if terrorists arrived at our location, but at some point we received a call from the MDA National Emergency Call Center, shouting that we should flee because terrorists on motorcycles were on their way and to just get away from there.
\n\u201cYou’re with wounded people and you don’t know what to do, so you put everyone in the ambulance no matter what and just run somewhere until the army takes out the terrorists. But I don’t know what we would have done if they physically got to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone had the feeling \u2018I should be there\u2019. Everyone wanted to help. We knew there were many injured people because we were in contact with people from the inside. Everyone was focused; we knew we were needed so we came.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 48 hours we worked almost non-stop. There were masses of patients. On Sunday morning we were evacuating by ambulance to Soroka after being connected to helicopters all night. Then, we returned to Netivot, got organized, showered and went back there. I haven’t slept in days. From Saturday to Tuesday night, I did not sleep.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a wounded soldier from a Special Forces unit who was shot all over his arm and leg. He had a tourniquet and didn’t want us to take care of him. He didn’t let us. He said: \u2018Give me something for the pain. I need to go back in there and fight.\u2019
\nIn a situation like that, there is nothing you can do.Eventually, we managed to convince him and he agreed to receive treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was also a soldier in critical condition who asked me to say Shema Israel with him, and who asked me to tell his family that he loves them, misses them and has done everything to protect them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m still digesting the event, but it’s important for me to say a big \u2018thank you\u2019, not just to the teams who were there with me, but to everyone who was there and fought to save lives. Everyone there did an amazing job, well done.\u201d<\/p>\n
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