Israeli Mass Casualty - Terror Workshop: Training Day 4
By Greg Friese, MS, NREMT-P, WEMT, Emergency Preparedness Systems, LLC
EMSResponder.com Contributor
On his fourth day of MCI response training in Israel, Greg discusses the perspective he has gained from this international experience where mass casualty incidents are common.
He describes the numerous sites they are visiting, where there often remains a small memorial, and shares how moving it is to see how the conflicts there affect people personally.
Greg explains that his understanding is limited in that he is only learning about the Israeli perspective on the conflict; it is considered unsafe for Americans to travel to the Palestinian occupied areas, and is not part of the program.
However, that does not prevent the group from learning what it means to respond to terrorist attacks – how it feels, what they do - and to learn what it means to lose friends and relatives in such attacks. Greg describes not only the medical but the psychological fallout.
Finally, Greg talks about the medical and emergency management world experts he is meeting, and their discussions on how the international lessons learned might apply to settings in the U.S.
To learn more about this program, visit the Institute for Terrorism Research and Response at terrorresponse.org, or e-mail questions and comments about Greg’s experience to gfriese@eps411.com.
