Fortsätt till huvudinnehåll

The lifestyle of saving lives

I am a volunteer in Magen David Adom, the ambulance service in Israel. Usually this means helping old people that aren't really that ill to get to the hospital, sometimes taking care of drunk people lying in the street but mostly sitting waiting on the station to get call to something interesting. However, the situation has changed the last week. Israel has been under attack with rockets fired from Gaza. This has happened before when I have been in Israel but I have never really been affected until this time. The rockets are reaching further up North than before which means that the red alert alarm has gone off in Petach Tikva, where I live, and we've been sent down to the bomb shelter in Netanya. It has even got to the point where the dispatcher in Netanya has moved down to the bomb shelter.
So how has this affected me? This meant me making a choice, do I stay in my flat to keep safe or do I continue the shifts as if nothing happened? To me the choice was obvious, as soon as we got permission to leave the bomb shelter and the dispatcher received a call I was ready to get into the ambulance even if this meant risking a code red (rockets) when I was out and about in the ambulance. But to be honest, that didn't disturb me. There were people that needed help and I wasn't going to let some terrorists stop me from helping. Some people might think it's an heroic act. It isn't. It's an act of being a human. I've been trained to save lives and I don't see why I should stop.
To me being a part of Magen David Adom is not a hobby, it's a lifestyle. When I'm needed I am happy to spend 16 hours or even more on the station because I know that I am doing something useful and I'm proud to do this even if this means risking my own life. Why, you might wonder. Well, let me tell you, I would rather live my life doing something useful instead of living my life being afraid of what could happen if I was trying to help other people.
I can't deny that I'm not scared when the ambulance needs to stop on the road because there is a red alert. It is a terrifying feeling sitting there not knowing if a rocket is going to land right on the ambulance but the thing that scares me more is that the rocket will land hundred meters away from me and I'll be the one having to save the innocent people that are injured from the rocket. The damage these rockets can do would most likely leave me helpless and not being able to do anything.
As a volunteer, a Jew and a person I'm not here to take anyone's side. I will help whoever gets injured, regardless their religion, nationality, political views etc. I'm not there to judge, I'm there to save lives. To me that means there are times when I will be scared, I might not know what is ahead of me and I might not be able to save lives but it's worth the effort for that moment when you stand there knowing the person is alive because you took your time to help them.

Etiketter:

Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

To me he is Sméagol

After finishing Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit my attitude towards the books is easy to describe; I'm in love with the books. As much as it is a struggle to get through Lord of The Rings I enjoyed every word of it and the Hobbit only made me like J.R.R Tolkien even more. One thing that made me love the books was Sméagol (Gollum). The character added a lot of entertainment but also food for thought in so many ways. We are constantly thrown between Sméagol and Gollum and the inner fight he has with himself of what he is. The reason for me feeling so connected to Sméagol is probably due to the fact that I believe everyone can relate to the feelings he is going through, especially in the society now-a-days where we often let our urge of having something can lead to us changing our behavior completely. Sméagol is one of the few characters in the book that is not purely good or bad, he switches between the two, in extreme ways. As strange as it might sound, he is just an exaggerated ...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

Sometimes life gives you lemons...but you might not like lemonade.

We all have feelings. If you say you don't you must be a robot because having feelings is one thing that defines us as people. What you and me feel changes constantly and no one can ever feel exactly the same thing as you do. My happiness might be different from yours and your sadness might be something completely different from what I'm feeling. Because of this no one can tell us that what we're feeling is wrong. However, we can try to understand other people and relate to what they are feeling to similar experiences we've had in our lives. One thing that has struck me recently though is how we seem to think we can relate to other people's feelings when in fact we often close our eyes to what is really going on. Especially when someone is going through something difficult. I find this strange because it is completely normal to have bad days. We wouldn't be human if we didn't. We all have bad days, some people more than others but we have all been there whe...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

Thought on friendship

I have now finished my first year of university. It is a strange feeling knowing that in two years time I will be done with university and moving on with my life but it is also a good feeling knowing I've been through another year filled with experiences and new insight on life. One thing I knew before university but never really appreciated as much as now was the value of friendship. This year I've made friends that I want to make an effort to keep in touch with. I had fight with friends but sorted it out because it was more important to me than leaving it and just staying friends with the people I got along with and the most important thing, I've learnt who I can trust. Being a friend is not just finding someone else funny and listening to them talking about interesting things, it is also about hearing someone complaining about the same thing over and over even though you give them advice what to do. It is accepting that this person might never take your advice but you w...
En kommentar
Läs mer