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Rambam Health Care Campus patients are transported to the
facility's fortified underground hospital.
heavily during the 2006 Lebanon War, when
hundreds of rockets rained down on the
hospital. Following that war, a planned park-
ing lot was built as a dual-purpose facility ca-
pable of converting into a fortified 2,000-bed
underground hospital for times of conflict.
Initially funded with a donation from Israeli
philanthropist Sammy Ofer, and afterward
funded by the Israeli government, the under-
ground hospital opened in June and is cur-
rently the world's largest structure of its kind.
The parking garage "has the full capacity to
convert to a hospital," Beyar said.
"That means it has all the facilities that a
The fortified underground hospital at the Rambam Health Care Campus.
hospital needs, in terms of air conditioning,
lights, oxygen, all the medical gadgets.... All
the infrastructure is already in the walls. That
means all the oxygen pipes and connections
to the emergency machines.... So you can
roll down the patients, the respirators, the
monitors ... [and] just install them immedi-
ately," he said.
To protect against chemical warfare, the
parking garage can be sealed from the out-
side by special doors and filters then clean
the air in the area.
Several IDF soldiers have been killed by er-
rant mortar fire from the Syrian civil war, and
with its fortified underground hospital, RHCC
is prepared in case the war spills further into
Israel.
"We are ready for any such event," Beyar
said.
After a drill conducted by RHCC, Beyar es-
timates that a full evacuation of the hospital
to the underground area could take up to 72
hours. But with some preparation, "it only
takes one hour" to move about four depart-
ments of 30 patients each underground, he
said.
Concern over the looming threat of the
Syrian conflict has not stopped RHCC from
pursuing medical innovations beyond the
fortified underground structure. The hospital
often collaborates with Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology, which is also located
in Haifa, and with private companies. Beyar
himself is known for inventing a robotic cath-
eterization system that enables physicians to
conduct remote surgery.
"You can sit next to the robot and operate
the catheterization system, which will actu-
ally open up blockages in the [heart's] arter-
ies and implant stents," Beyar said.
The other advantage of the system is that
this keeps doctors away from radiation.
"[A doctor] doesn't need to stand by the
X-ray machine and sits in the console," ex-
plained Beyar. The catheterization system has
been approved by America's Food and Drug
Administration and "is penetrating the U.S.
market," he added.
Another recent development tested and
utilized at RHCC is a focused ultrasound for
the brain. Using technology developed by
a company called InSightec, doctors "can
actually treat your brain with a focused
ultrasound beam and treat Parkinson's [dis-
ease]," according to Beyar, who said that to
date more than 10 patients have undergone
this ultrasound at Rambam "with amazing
results."
"The patients come out of this procedure,
which takes two to three hours, and they stop
trembling," he said. "There are no more trem-
ors in their hands.... [The treatment] holds
and [the shaking] doesn't come back."
Facts About Israel That Will Surprise You
1. There are more than 100 sushi restaurants
in Tel Aviv ... making it the city with the
most sushi restaurants per capita after
Tokyo and New York City.
3. Israel has the third highest rate of entre-
preneurship in the world.
4. It has the highest rate of entrepreneurship
among women and people over 55 in the
world.
5. Israel was the first country to ban under-
weight models.
6. Israeli banknotes have braille markings on
them.
7. Israelis consume the third most vegeta-
bles and sweets in the world.
8. When Golda Meir became prime minister
of Israel in 1969, she was only the third
woman elected to lead a country in the
modern world.
9. The largest known dog cemetery in the
ancient world was discovered in the
coastal city of Ashkelon.
10.There's a rollerblading party that happens
every Tuesday night in Tel Aviv.
11. Out Magazine named Israel the gay capital
of the Middle East.
12. Israel has 137 official beaches (but only
170 miles of coastline).
13. In regards to its population, Israel has the
highest ratio of college degrees.
14.The same goes for the ratio of its muse-
ums ...
15.... and startup companies!
16. Motorola developed the cell phone in
Israel.
17.Voicemail technology was developed in
Israel.
18.The first antivirus software for computers
was created in Israel in 1979.
19. Israel has two official languages: Hebrew
and Arabic.
20. Israel published more books translated
from other languages than any other na-
tion in the world.
21.The city of Beersheva has the highest
number of chess grandmasters per capita
in the world.
22. Only two countries began the 21st century
with a net gain in their number of trees;
Israel was one of them.
23.The opening scene of the Al Pacino film
The Insider was shot in Israel.
24. Haifa, Israel has one of the smallest sub-
way systems in the world with a 1.1-mile
track and only four carriages - how cute!
An Israeli beach
52
Chai Israel • October 2014
25. Israel is one of only three democracies
in the world without a codified constitu-
tion. The other two are New Zealand and
Britain.
26.The Sea of Galilee - located .212 km be-
low sea level - is the lowest freshwater
lake in the world (and the largest in Israel).
27.The Dead Sea is the lowest place on Earth.
Period.
28. People can easily float in the Dead Sea
due to its unusually high salt concentra-
tion. It's almost impossible to dive into it.
29. Israel is the only country to revive an
unspoken language and establish it as its
national tongue.
30.Jerusalem's Mount of Olives is the world's
oldest continuously used cemetery.
31. El Al, Israel's national airline, set the world
record for the most passengers on a com-
mercial flight.
Floating in the Dead Sea
32. Life expectancy at birth in Israel is 82 years
(two years more than the world average).
33. Eilat and the Hula Valley Reserve are some
of the best bird-watching sites in the world.
34. A cooking oil developed in Israel is capable
of breaking up cholesterol and other
blood fats.
35. An Israeli company has developed the
world's first jellyfish repellent.
36. Israel is one of only nine countries in the
world that can launch its own satellites
into space.
37. More than 44 percent of all lawyers regis-
tered in Israel are women.
38. A group of Israeli artists have started bus
stop libraries available free of charge to
commuters traveling across Israel. ❑
Courtesy of reThinklsrael.