Fw: EMSNEWS Digest - 28 Dec 2001 to 29 Dec 2001 (#2001-266)

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Israel - Violence Traumatizes Hardened Israeli Rescuers

>

> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-123001trauma.story

>

> Violence Traumatizes Hardened Israeli Rescuers

> Mideast: Professionals and volunteers alike feel the strain from dealing

> with bloody attacks. Many have reached a breaking point.

>

> By MARY CURTIUS

> Times Staff Writer

>

> December 30 2001

>

> KIBBUTZ HAFETZ HAYIM, Israel -- For an army of Israeli professionals and

> volunteers who deal with the aftermath of terrorist attacks, 2001 will be

> remembered as a numbing blur of mass-casualty bombings etched in scenes of

> horror.

>

> Since June, a string of deadly attacks by Palestinian militants that has

> killed more than 70 people and injured hundreds has strained the coping

> abilities of even veteran rescuers in this battle-hardened nation.

>

> Emergency room doctors and nurses, disaster volunteers, police officers,

> soldiers and forensic pathologists say their resilience has been

undermined

> by the sheer volume of victims, the sustained nature of the attacks and

the

> sense that there is no end in sight to the bloodshed.

>

> Government agencies report increases in sick days emergency workers and

> police have taken this year, and in the number of times stress or burnout

> are cited as the reason for taking a day off.

>

> Responding to an upsurge in demand from officers, Israel's police force is

> establishing a clinical psychology department to offer therapy for those

> suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

>

> " In the last year, we have reached a breaking point in the level of stress

> and burnout for police, " said Col. Raffi Lev, commander of the national

> police force's behavioral science department. The current wave of violence

> has been worse than in years past, Lev said, " because this has been high

> stress for a long time. It feels like an endless war. "

>

> Members of the 26,000-strong national police force have been working

12-hour

> shifts six days a week for more than a year now, much of it in a state of

> high alert, said Maj. Gen. Moshe Karady, head of manpower for the force.

> They are exhausted and often frightened, he said.

>

> " Policemen usually approach a suspect as though he were a man, " Karady

said.

> " Now they approach him as if he is a bomb and they are a sapper [bomb

> expert]. " Knowing that a suspect might blow himself up during routine

> questioning, Karady said laconically, " causes anxiety. "

>

> Bomb disposal units, forensic squads and traffic police--often the first

> ones on the scene of a mass-casualty attack--have been hit particularly

> hard. The department has sent hundreds of these personnel to counseling

> workshops or on group vacations in an effort to ease their stress.

>

> Police Must Handle 'Wide Variety of Tasks'

>

> Still, Karady said, he worries about how the force will cope if the

conflict

> with the Palestinians, which erupted in September 2000, wears on for

another

> year.

>

> " Where else in the world do police have to deal with such a wide variety

of

> tasks in a situation where the home front has become the front for so

long? "

> Karady asked.

>

> Yossy Landau agrees that this year has tested rescue workers in Israel

like

> no other year he can remember. Landau is a volunteer with Hesed shel Emet,

> an ultra-Orthodox organization that sends teams of men to recover and bury

> human remains collected from the scene of attacks.

>

> A 33-year-old businessman who has worked with the group for five years,

> Landau said he once felt armored against psychological trauma by his

> conviction that he was performing a religious duty. No more.

>

> Memories of the Aug. 9 suicide bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in downtown

> Jerusalem still haunt Landau. Sixteen people died when the bomber

detonated

> explosives packed on his body in a restaurant filled with families at

> lunchtime.

>

> Among the dead was 2-year-old Hemda Schijueshuurder, who was cradled in

her

> father's arms as he stood waiting for the family's pizza.

>

> " We could find nothing left of the little girl, " recalled Landau, the

father

> of seven. " We sent a special team of 15 men back to search for five hours,

> trying to find something, " he said, tears welling in his eyes. " At last we

> found her pacifier, and there was a tiny piece of flesh on it. DNA testing

> showed that it was her. That is what the family buried. "

>

> Landau spoke to a reporter during a break at a two-day seminar Hesed shel

> Emet organized this month at Kibbutz Hafetz Hayim for 100 of its

volunteers.

> Amid warnings that future bombers might pack their explosives with nerve

gas

> or other toxins, the group was trained to deal with collecting the bodies

of

> victims of a biological, chemical or nuclear assault.

>

> Also jarring to the volunteers is the knowledge that synchronized attacks

> can put rescuers at risk. In December, workers converged on the scene of a

> downtown Jerusalem pedestrian mall, where two suicide bombers blew

> themselves up and killed 11 others. Minutes later, a car bomb went off

near

> where the Hesed shel Emet volunteers had gathered to begin their work, and

> one was injured by flying shrapnel.

>

> " We had to pull two of our guys in to desk jobs after that, " Landau said.

> " They were on the verge of nervous breakdowns. "

>

> Recently, Hesed shel Emet asked Israel's Health Ministry to provide

> psychological counseling for its volunteers.

>

> " We are getting lots of phone calls from the wives of our volunteers, "

said

> Rabbi Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, the group's director. " They ask us to release

> their husbands from this work because they say there are consequences for

> their home lives. "

>

> The husbands often are ashamed to acknowledge that they need help,

> Meshi-Zahav said.

>

> Perhaps no group of Israelis has had more direct or devastating exposure

to

> the results of attacks than the six forensic pathologists at Abu Kabir,

> Israel's only forensic institute. By law, the remains of anyone who dies

in

> questionable circumstances in Israel are brought to the institute in

Jaffa.

>

> This year, Abu Kabir was a chamber of horrors. Again and again, the

> pathologists counseled distraught families, breaking the news that their

> loved ones were dead, guiding them through the identification process and,

> in some cases, explaining that there was little left to identify.

>

> A rabbi and social worker are usually on hand to deal with the families,

but

> doctors recently asked that a psychologist also be present.

>

> " This month we had 25 victims plus four terrorists, " said Dr. Jehuda Hiss,

> who has directed the clinic for 27 years. " My generation of doctors never

> felt that we needed psychological help, but the new generation feel that

> they need it, now that we have so many victims. "

>

> Years ago, Hiss said, the doctors at the institute usually knew little

about

> the victims they examined and virtually nothing about their families. Now,

> he said, " once we leave the clinic after identifying the victims and

meeting

> with the families, we go home and see all the stories of these victims and

> their families on television. Suddenly, you feel that you are a part of

the

> whole story. "

>

> The youthfulness of many of the victims has also affected the doctors,

Hiss

> said, " because many of us have children the same age as, say, those who

died

> at the Dolphinarium. " Twenty-one mostly young people died at the popular

Tel

> Aviv disco in a June 1 suicide bombing.

>

> It was after that attack, Hiss said, that he and his staff began spending

> more time counseling families who arrive to identify victims.

>

> " When you have to meet with the families, it is terrible, " said Dr.

> Nachman, another Abu Kabir pathologist. " When I am with the bodies, I am

OK,

> this is my profession. But when I meet with the family, this is the point

of

> psychological break for me. "

>

> 'I See the Families Cry, and I Cry With Them'

>

> Because Jewish law requires the dead to be buried as quickly as

> possible--preferably before sundown on the day they die--the pathologists

at

> Abu Kabir have worked as long as 48 hours straight in the past year. After

> such marathon sessions, " I cannot sleep, " said Nachman, 33. " I go home,

turn

> on the TV, and I see the families cry, and I cry with them. "

>

> Dr. Maya Furman-Reznic, 29, a resident in forensic pathology at the

> institute, began work there just five months ago. She already feels the

> stress of the job, and sometimes sees dismembered bodies in her dreams.

>

> " We are all taking this pretty well from the outside, but we don't know

what

> effect it has in the long term or how it will break out in other aspects

of

> our lives, " said Furman-Reznic. " That is why we said we need someone here

to

> help us ventilate our feelings. "

>

> Emergency room nurses have also needed extra counseling this year, said

> professor Arieh Shalev, head of the department of psychiatry at

Jerusalem's

> Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital.

>

> " Who is more professional than nurses? " he asked. " They are just there to

> help, and they are able to be very active, to work well in a group, to

feel

> that they are making a difference. And still, from time to time, you get

one

> or two nurses who break down, particularly when young people are brought

> in. "

>

> For professionals dealing with wave after wave of violence, " you need to

> recruit a level of distancing and then you carry your distancing shield

back

> home, " Shalev said. " You remain numb and emotionally unresponsive. "

>

> Shalev said experts are still searching for the most effective way of

> helping professionals and volunteers remain emotionally responsive, yet

> capable of dealing with trauma that simply does not end.

>

>

>

>

>

> ****************************************************

> M. Maniscalco

> p.maniscalco.1@...

> ****************************************************

>

> ------------------------------

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> End of EMSNEWS Digest - 28 Dec 2001 to 29 Dec 2001 (#2001-266)

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