Michelle Bowman, ARC/GNY Assistant Director of Training and Logistics, writes about her historic trip to Israel to work as an MDA Ambulance Responder.

Today was the big day—our first day on the ambulance. I am happy to report that we all made it through.

Paul twisted his ankle rather severely on Sunday, so it was just Kathryn, Francis and I who met outside the hotel at 6:15am on Tuesday morning. I will not speak for the others, but I definitely felt a combination of anticipation and nervousness as we headed to our first shift. We had lots of training, but I still had no idea what to expect. We arrived to a somewhat chaotic scene as exhausted-looking paramedics came off the night shift and dozens of volunteers, medics, and EMTs arrived for the morning shift. During the day MDA generally has about seven basic ambulances (ragil) staffed by a medic and volunteers as well as a few more advanced ambulances (natan or atan) staffed primarily by paramedics, medics and even a doctors. Each ambulance can have as many as four people on it, which can lead to a very busy morning.

We reported to the woman who was responsible for scheduling and she soon assigned us to our ambulances. Fortunately, I was paired with another volunteer from London who had been working at MDA for about six weeks. We went to introduce ourselves to our chovesh (medic) for the day, and then we checked out the back of the ambulance. Of course, on my first day I had no idea what was supposed to be in the back of the ambulance, but I dutifully followed him along as he made the check.

I quickly learned that volunteering at MDA can be a lot of hurrying up to wait. After checking the ambulance, we returned to the station to wait for a call. While waiting, you can do whatever you want—read, watch TV, grab a snack. However, as soon as your driver's name is called, you have to drop what you"re doing and get to your ambulance as quickly as possible. I discovered the potential hazard of this situation when I opened up a new can of Diet Coke and I immediately heard my driver’s name called. I gave my much-needed source of caffeine one final sip, then handed it to Kathryn and left. The chovesh was not going to wait for a new volunteer to finish her drink.

We jumped in the back of the ambulance and as soon as we left the driveway, the driver turned on the siren. I had been in an ambulance before, but never one that was rushing to a call. On an "urgent” call the sirens are wailing, and the driver disregards all traffic rules, driving over curves and turning the wrong way down one-way roads in order to get to the patient as quickly as possible. My first ride was exhilarating and terrifying; I had no idea what to expect when we arrived.

I must admit that my first call was somewhat anti-climatic. The patient was an elderly man with a bloody nose. Due to my (extremely) limited knowledge of Hebrew, I was not exactly sure what was happening, but another volunteer took the patient’s pulse and blood pressure, then we loaded the patient onto the stretcher and took him to the ambulance. Nobody ran, nobody cried, and fortunately there were no amputated limbs.

On the way to the hospital the other two volunteers took over. One filled out the necessary paperwork, and the other again checked the patient’s blood pressure, pulse, and breathing. I sat in the back, watching and learning about the specifics of my future role. We arrived at the hospital, wheeled the patient into the emergency room, and then left. We were the transport service, and our job was done.

I quickly learned that this was a very average MDA call. According to one of my drivers, Israelis use the ambulance service a lot more than Americans, so MDA gets a lot of calls from people who just aren’t feeling well. Also, a lot of elderly people who have transportation limitations call MDA to take them to their medical appointments. This was good news for me, as it was much easier than dealing with a slew of heart attacks.

I had a couple more similar calls that day, but we also spent a lot of time driving around Jerusalem, waiting for something to come through on the radio. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on (again, language limitations) so I just sat in the back and enjoyed the ride. Then, all of a sudden, the excitement started. We got a call, so I started putting on gloves, but then the ambulance slowed down. We were in Mea She’arim, Jerusalem’s most religious area, which is populated primarily by Ultra-Orthodox Jews who dress in the traditional black garb. Today the street was filled with hundreds of angry people who seemed to be rioting. The ambulance slowly pulled into the crowd, but people started pounding on the side of the ambulance and shouting. The street had become a black sea of angry Hessidic Jews. I had no idea what was happening, but elsewhere I could see people pulling huge dumpsters around to block the streets. The police started yelling something at my driver, who was admirably cool and composed in the situation. Slowly, we turned around and drove away.

We stopped about 200 feet away, up a hill where we could watch the scene unfold. According to another volunteer, the people were rioting because the next day Israel planned to evacuate another settlement in the West Bank, a move they disagreed with. We watched from a distance as more and more people came; soon they set the dumpsters on fire and the flames leapt up into the sky. It looked like a scene from CNN, but it was just down the road. My chovesh put on his reflective vest and got out of the ambulance, but the rest of us waited inside, watching the events unfold. It was at this time that I noticed that my chovesh, who was more advanced than most drivers, had a pistol in his belt. We waited long enough to determine that there was really nothing we could do in this situation, and then we left.

By now it was around 2pm, so I thought this exhilarating scene would be the end of my day. We went back to the station, and once again, I bought a drink, this time a can of mango juice. At 2:45 I had half a can left, when we got another call. I threw away my drink (silently noting to myself that I should buy bottled beverages tomorrow) and headed to the ambulance.

Our final call was the most exciting actual incident of the day. As we were pulling up to the house one of the other volunteers told me to grab the Lifepak (or Automated External Defibrillator). I knew from my CPR training that this meant the victim could be unconscious, which is an extremely life-threatening condition. It turned out that the patient was conscious, but she had fallen, so she had to be placed on a backboard. As the newest member of the team, I just watched as the others employed the skills I had just learned in class. We took the woman at the hospital and I arrived back at the station 30 minutes after my supposed end time, exhausted and excited. Ambulance work was going to be interesting, and I couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring.