Drs. Robert Kelman and Howard
Korman pose by a Michigan-donated
Israeli ambulance.

HARRY KIRS BAUM

Sta ti2-iter

D

r. Howard Korman remem-
bers workinc, b on his
"patient" in the 90-some-
thing-degree Israeli sun, performing
an intubation while wearing a rub-
berized protective suit.
The thick rubber gloves were too
bulky to get a good feel as he snaked
the breathing tube past the vocal
chords and down the patient's throat.
And although the patient had been
exposed to a chemical attack, Dr.
Korman became so uncomfortable,
he ripped the clear plastic hood off
of his head to get a breath of fresh
air.
Dr. Korman, an urologist from
Southfield, had just been part of a
chemical attack drill in Israel, and his
"patient" was a dummy.
Dr. Korman joined his neighbor,
Dr. Robert Kelman, an emergency
room doctor at Providence Hospital
in Oakland County and St. John
Hospital in Macomb County, in a
five-day medical-emergency and dis-
aster-preparedness course in Israel last

in Case of
Emergency...

Local doctors on call for
disaster service in Israel.

Front Lines

Tiny medical center in Efrat
looks to the future.

HARRY KIRS BAUM
StaffWriter

T

he video is remarkable.A car pulls up to
the Efrat Emergency Medical Center's
security gate on Jan. 31 and a Palestinian
man in full cardiac arrest: is pulled out of the front
seat and laid on the ground.
Within two minutes, EEMC's director Dr.
Yitzhak Glick and a paramedic pull up in an ambu-
lance followed by a security jeep to protect the doc-
tor and patient, followed by more vehicles with
more medical personnel. Within 26 minutes, the
patient is evacuated safely.
Just another day in the West Bank.
Dr. Glick passed through Detroit to raise money for
a new medical center to replace the prefab trailer that
holds the center he opened when the current intifada

6/16
2005

18

Dr Yitzhak Glick and Menachem Fogel

month.
With a goal of 200 doctors, 70 from
the United States have signed up to
volunteer their services in case of a
major attack in Israel. About 33 of
them have taken the course, and four
of them are from Young Israel of
Southfield.
"We're hoping for a `minyan' from
our shul," said Dr. Korman.
If called, a doctor would get five
days notice to come to Israel for a 10-
day to two-week stint, he said.
"The Israeli doctors will work the
emergency, and the American volun-
teers will work support in the hospi-
tal," said Dr. Korman.
Dr. Kelman was excited that he
could train in such realistic settings.
"Even though we learn about these
things in textbooks, we never get the
opportunity to practice them here
— even post 9-11 — and I'm an
E.R. [emergency room] doctor,"
he said.
The simulation included 150
patients coming in a few at a time,"
said Dr. Kelman. "Someone would call
in and say we're going to hit them with
four more ambulances, right now."