Until the morning of October 7, the lives of Dor Vaknin and Hadar Shayer, both medics with Magen David Adom, were fairly routine, even for medics. But since the outbreak of the war, both Vaknin and Shayer have been on the medical frontlines along Israel’s northern border.
Vaknin, a senior EMT and deputy manager of the Medicycle division, and Shayer, a paramedic, live at the very northern tip of Israel in Moshav Ya’ara. An MDA MICU is parked outside their home so that they can quickly treat both soldiers and civilians, sometimes under live fire.
Besides his work for MDA, Vaknin is a member of Moshav Ya’ara’s security team and he tends his family’s farm. “Since the farm is crucial for our family’s financial survival, I take care of it and friends from MDA have even helped collect eggs and helped with the overall workings of the farm,” said Vaknin.
Two days after the war began, Vaknin treated a soldier who had been shot in the upper limbs. “While we were evacuating the patient to the hospital in Nahariya, the IDF alerted us to a harmful drone above. We hid on the side of the road until the drone was neutralized.”
Another time, Vaknin reported what he thought was a forest fire to the authorities. Just a few moments later, he heard the sound of a rocket approaching. He ran and lay down next to a wall while an anti-tank rocket struck 40 meters from his ambulance. “I was saved by a miracle,” Vaknin says.
“Being available to my community and helping it keeps me going and motivates me to continue saving lives, even under difficult and life-threatening conditions,” said Vaknin. “I’m happy to be part of MDA even though this period is challenging and full of dangers.”
