MDA helps communities prepare for the unexpected and unimaginable.
Magen David Adom, Israel’s world-renown emergency medical and mass-casualty response organization, has long made sharing its knowledge and experience with the world a priority.
One of the ways that goal is achieved is to provide trainings around the world for medical professionals and lay people.
Now, following a two-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, MDA is back in the United States with its unique “First 7 Minutes” training.
The First 7 Minutes is a seminar offered by MDA’s most experienced paramedics and instructors to provide communities with the tools they need to stay safe and save lives in the chaotic period between an armed attack and the seven minutes it typically takes for EMTs and other first responders to arrive to the scene.
Because of the sheer number of terrorist incidents in Israel, MDA has emerged as the most experienced mass-casualty response organization in the world.
“You’ll never know when violence will strike, but you’ll know what to do when it does,” said Raphael Herbst,” an MDA senior paramedic and instructor, and the director of the First 7 Minutes program.
“The unique focus of this training is how to respond as a community, not just as individuals, to save lives.”
Following recent armed attacks here against religious, academic, and other institutions, the need to better train people to protect themselves and render aid to others has become urgent.
In the aftermath of the July 4th shooting in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago, and the coming of the Jewish High Holidays, MDA was asked to conduct emergency-response training for religious institutions across Chicago. The interfaith trainings, led by Herbst, were held over three days from September 12 – September 14. One session, hosted by the Israel and Mexican Consulates, was conducted in Spanish for the Mexican community by senior paramedic Kelly Peretz.
In the four-hour training, participants learned how to work together as a community to save lives, such as how to stop the bleeding without tourniquets, how to classify urgent and non-urgent injuries, and how to call for help. Following a 90-minute lecture, they practiced a series of drills to reinforce the knowledge that has been imparted.
Much of the training, including the first-aid instruction and emphasis on safety and needs prioritization, is also applicable to other emergency situations, such as building collapses, fires, and natural disasters, providing course participants with skills and confidence critical for a variety of situations.
To learn more about First 7 Minutes training and how to schedule one in your community, email bfinley@afmda.org. Modest fees cover transportation and expenses.
