Earlier this week, an MDA team of paramedics, EMTs, and doctors, as well as two doctors from Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital established a field clinic in Chisinau, Moldova for Ukrainian refugees at the request of the Moldovan Jewish community.
One of its first patients was a 100-year-old Holocaust survivor who was rescued from Kyiv with assistance from the Israeli rescue organization, Zaka. After the 14-hour ambulance ride, MDA teams examined and treated her.
“We conducted a comprehensive set of tests to make sure her physical condition was good and arranged for her to live in the delegation’s hostel, with the aim of keeping her close and having a friend until she immigrated to Israel,” says Chaim Levin, a paramedic and director of the clinic.
“We saw the calm on her face when she saw the symbols of Magen David Adom on our clothes and realized that she was finally, after a month of fighting, safe,” says Levin.
As soon as word spread about the clinic, it began receiving any refugees needing assistance, not just Jewish refugees. It is also receiving patients from other Israeli delegations in Moldova. “It’s hard to describe the fear, the distress, the shock that has shaken people’s lives,” says Levin.
“An elderly woman came here from Ukraine with chronic diseases, who was shaken by the long and difficult journey, without any sleep or medication,” he recounts. “She was suffering from a severe and worsening lung disease, and we were able to stabilize her and bring her to a local hospital.”
Sometimes the assistance given is walking the dogs of elderly patients too ill to do so or playing soccer with the children.
Dr. Hannan Geffen is a medical director with MDA. He says, “I met terrified, desperate, and sad people who tell horrifying stories. I have no doubt that beyond medical treatment, providing a compassionate ear helps them cope with the situation.”
