continued from page 50 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.