It is a well-known fact among oncology patients, that one of the effects of chemotherapy, is that the patient’s immune system shuts down for the duration of the treatments. Thus “if an oncology patient develops even a slight fever, they need to rush to the emergency room in order to undergo observation and receive treatment via antibiotics if necessary”, explained Michal Geller, mother of Raaya Geller. Raaya is a 16-year-old young woman from the town of Hispin in the Golan Heights who is so full of life and hope but has been living with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, for the past year and a half. “ For an oncology patient, making it to the myriad number of appointments is hard enough, but if a patient gets an illness on top of their treatment, even a strong cold, then they have to go back once again to the hospital,” Geller explained. “Normal treatment sessions, follow-up appointments, and testing can often last up to several hours.” This is a very difficult situation for people who live close to the hospital. But for patients living in the periphery, where the closest hospital option for them may include several hours of driving in each direction, the situation can quickly become untenable. This issue is of course compounded for families with small children. What should take just a few hours for the treatment or appointment, is now an all-day event, and can even result in the patient needing to sleep in the hospital overnight if there are follow-up treatments the next day. “My husband and I often have a tough time deciding which parent should go with Raaya to her treatments, and which parent should stay home in order to care of our other children. It is heart-wrenching every time.” This problem has existed for a very long time and until now there was no solution in sight until recently, when the CEO of United Hatzalah Eli Pollack, and the organization’s President and Founder Eli Beer, decided that they were going to pick up the gauntlet and assist oncology patients living in the periphery by doing what the organization does in the field. “Our goal, together with our partner Lahak, is to cut down response time so that people don’t have to wait to receive medical treatment. While we have been focusing on emergency medical response, we decided to undertake a new pilot project involving our helicopters that will cut down on travel time for families and children living with cancer, to and from the hospital. We hope that by cutting down the transport time, the patients and their families will benefit from a much easier journey and that it will free them from the time constraints included in traveling 3-4 hours to the hospital.” Beer added that the project is still in its testing and pilot stage, but if it works, then the organization hopes to be able to launch the project permanently. “This is incredibly important and even results in lives being saved, because if these patients are exposed to germs or viruses while traveling to or from the hospital, the results can be catastrophic. These children deserve a faster way to receive their treatments. If a way exists to get them to the hospital faster, whether it is an urgent […]

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