Blood tests and ultrasounds are now able to be performed in MDA’s new unique Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU)
In addition to the MDA ambulances, MICUs, motorcycles, bicycles and MERVs in the Gush Dan area, another vehicle which will reinforce the teams providing a particularly advanced medical response in which a doctor can perform procedures that can only be performed today upon the patient’s arrival to the ER.
Inside the MICU
The upgraded MICU, operated by senior MDA paramedics along with doctors from Ichilov Hospital, has been inaugurated this evening at a ceremony, attended by President Reuven Rivlin. The advanced MICU, which will help save lives, was dedicated in memory of the late Mrs Nechama Rivlin, who passed away about three months ago. Israel’s First Lady and the Rivlin family were always part of the life-saving work of Magen David Adom. The MICU was donated by the MDA Friends Society in Canada will assist complex injured and patients and save lives, in memory of the late Nechama Rivlin Z”L.
In addition to the advanced medical equipment and medications which are available in every MDA intensive care unit, the new vehicle will also have additional medications and equipment, such as ultrasound, blood tests device, chest drainage and more. The upgraded mobile’s primary purpose is to assist in providing medical treatment on the ground in difficult cases, Including prolonged resuscitation, complex patients, injured with unique injuries, complicated births, etc. The vehicle launch will be carried out on the basis of a request for assistance from Magen David Adom teams in the field, and according to MDA’s 101 Dispatch Center decision.
President Rivlin checks the MICU
In some cases, where the new MICU will evacuate the patient, the physician and paramedic will continue to provide medical treatment upon arrival at the hospital, so that the treatment continuum is fully maintained.
The new Magen David Adom MICU in collaboration with Ichilov Hospital was built in Canada, according to the special needs of Magen David Adom. The interior of the car is extraordinarily large and is dedicated to providing advanced medical care in the field and on the way to the hospital. There was a great deal of thinking by MDA about every detail of the vehicle, all in order to make the conditions of medical teams’ work optimal.
A similar venture has been operating successfully in Jerusalem for about two years’ where just as in Tel Aviv, MDA paramedics work together with doctors from Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals and operate a unique vehicle for providing advanced treatment in the field.
President Reuven (Ruvi) Rivlin commented: “Three months have gone by since my beloved wife Nechama passed away and left in our family, of course, a huge gap. Nechama was a woman of science. She valued the men and women of medicine very much, worked with them, and appreciated the medical teams’ work, and above all – she loved people, human beings. I’m sure she’d be glad to hear about the new MICU with state of the art medical equipment which will literally save lives. A MICU in which MDA paramedics and Ichilov Hospital doctors will work side by side and save lives.”
MDA Deputy Director-General- Medicine, Dr Raphael Strugo, explained: “About 2% of life-threatening emergencies are difficult and complex conditions that require additional treatment by a physician in the urgent medical field. In order to best treat these cases further in the field, Together with Ichilov Hospital, we created an upgraded MICU, where senior physicians and paramedics will work together with advanced medical equipment, which is beyond the existing MICU equipment. For those rare and complex cases, the vehicle actually exists, and I have no doubt that the special venture will save lives.”
