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Dec. 16, 2011
Give an ambulance to MDA
Vancouver doctors ask for help raising funds for care in Israel.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
Stuck for a gift idea for the person who has everything? A charitable donation in their name is one option, and two local members of the Jewish community are recommending just that – and leading by example.
Cardiologist Dr. Saul Isserow and anesthesiologist Dr. Rael Klein, who both practise out of Vancouver General Hospital, are longtime friends. They first met as teenagers at a Habonim camp in South Africa, their home country, and reconnected in Saskatchewan, where they both initially lived when they immigrated to Canada. Since then, the doctors have made Vancouver home, become even better friends and also work together at times.
Both men are grateful for what they have been given in life, and how much opportunity they have had in Canada to succeed personally and professionally. This is one reason that, instead of material gifts for their birthdays, Chanukah and other occasions, they are requesting that friends and family make a charitable donation. Their cause of choice is Magen David Adom.
Klein turned 50 this year and, he told the Independent, “I personally feel that it’s time that I start giving a little back to causes that I strongly believe in and, I think I can speak for Saul, we both have a fairly strong Zionistic bent and I have been to Israel a number of times over the last few years ... and this last trip, I was lucky enough to have Roy [Grinshpan, president of Canadian MDA, B.C. Region] facilitate a visit to MDA at Tel Hashomer hospital, where I spent a day with one of the lead people there and I realized [during] my visit that much of what they have comes from outside donations, and mostly from abroad. There is a definite shortfall in government resources to support much of the important stuff that they do and that’s one of the things that made this initiative all the more important, having had the opportunity to visit them.”
Isserow, who turns 50 next year, added, “The reason we wanted to do this is, first of all, like most people who turn 50, it’s like realizing you may be getting to halfway there.... It’s a 50th birthday initiative ... and we felt that the organization, MDA here is a small organization, it’s volunteer run, it doesn’t get a lot of publicity and ... we wanted to try and make people aware that this is a way to give back.” He noted that giving to MDA is a way to give to Israel and, also, MDA is an organization that does not discriminate: it treats everyone, regardless of race, creed, religion or citizenship. “It’s a nondenominational organization in terms of the good work that they do,” said Isserow.
The doctors, who are honorary directors of MDA, would like to raise enough money to buy a special ambulance and, as of mid-November, they had raised more than $20,000 towards that goal.
“We are hoping to raise enough money for the mobile intensive care unit (MICU) class ambulance, which has far more equipment and a raised roof for paramedics to be able to stand up and manoeuvre around the patient as it’s moving.... It’s basically an emergency room on wheels,” Grinshpan told the Independent.
While the ambulance will be put to use in Israel, it will be made in Canada.
“Every standard and MICU ambulance in Israel bought by MDA is manufactured in one of two plants,” explained Grinshpan. “Americans buy their ambulances from an American company due to tax regulations, but all other ambulances bought by any other country in the world ... [are] from Demers Ambulances.... With the geopolitical situation so volatile and Israel such a dynamic and multicultural country, every year, the ambulance is tweaked with new technologies and improvements and the Canadian plant is not only nimble enough to make these customizations efficiently; it stands out by coming up with new solutions itself to problems MDA presents it with. So, along with helping Israel, Canadians have a double reason to support MDA – because it supports the Canadian economy and Canadian research and development.”
Currently, there are three ambulances in service that have been funded by Vancouverites, said Grinshpan: a West Vancouver family funded an ambulance serving in the northern city of Karmiel, a “community” ambulance (purchased by broadly based individual donations from across Greater Vancouver) is stationed in Tel Aviv and a third “was donated as a bequest by the late Maurice ‘Mossy’ Raphael, who lived at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital.... His ambulance was recently dedicated by his U.K.-based family in the city of Modi’in, Israel.” As well, a mobile intensive care unit was donated in 2007 by a Vancouver family that was recently converted to serve as a mass casualty response vehicle, and it is stationed in Ashkelon, said Grinshpan.
The region to which the new ambulance will be assigned is MDA Israel’s decision, and will be based on the needs in the country at the time that there is enough money in Isserow and Klein’s “Share your Simchas with Israel” funds to buy the vehicle. As for the need for ambulances in Israel in general,
Grinshpan explained, “MDA ambulances have an average maximum life expectancy of four to five years, since they are constantly operational and on the road. Some more densely populated cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem can actually have their ambulances replaced after three years due to [the] higher intensity of calls. MDA is very strict with the maintenance of our fleet, since we must use any precautions to avoid a loss of life – both patients’ and crews’.
“About 400 ambulances are expected to be replaced over the next three to five years, with 15 percent of the fleet coming from Canada. There is a list of cities and villages in need and, as soon as an ambulance becomes available, the city that needs it most urgently gets it.
“Besides the ambulance body is the need to outfit its contents.... Without these vital supplies, the ambulance is just another van. Each and every ambulance costs MDA a whopping $25,000 a year to insure and maintain safely on the road. In times of peace, these supplies will last approximately nine to 12 months. In emergency situations, supplies last approximately six to eight weeks,” said Grinshpan.
The goal of Klein and Isserow’s fundraising effort is for the MICU ambulance, which will cost $130,000, to be purchased by next Sukkot and Grinshpan is inviting people “to come to Israel for its dedication, as part of the next MDA mission to Israel, planned for that time, if we meet our fundraising schedule.” People can support the project in two ways: donating cash, securities or bequests to the doctors’ “Simchas for Israel” MDA funds in the name of anyone who has “brought joy (simcha) into your life” or by forming their own simchas fund with MDA.
“We’d like to spurn on a lot of our friends and colleagues who are able to join in and create a similar initiative or join this initiative, so that we can reach our goal,” said Klein.
“We want this ambulance to mean something,” said Isserow, stressing that small or large donations are equally valued. “We’re trying to do a good deed from the community of Vancouver,” he said, explaining that he and Klein want the process – the involvement by as many people in the community as possible and an increased awareness of MDA – to be as important as the results, i.e. being able to buy the ambulance.
“Rael and I feel incredibly thankful that Israel exists and incredibly dedicated to its continuous strong existence, which is where this comes from,” explained Isserow about the motivation for their simchas funds.
Said Klein, “The main thing is that we’d like to encourage our dearest friends [and] colleagues who believe this is a worthy endeavor to get involved and support it, and not in recognition of myself or Saul but of themselves, to say that this is something that we feel is important and we would like to see it be successful, that we achieve our goal at the end of the day.”
To contribute to the doctors’ funds, visit cmdai.org, click on the Donate Now link on the top right, then the smaller Donate Now button, which will take you to the amount you wish to give, as well as the fund/designation to which you wish to give: the simchas funds are listed as Vancouver Birthday Fund for Dr. Saul Isserow and Vancouver Birthday Fund for Dr. Rael Klein. People can also contact Canadian MDA by e-mail, [email protected], and by phone, at 604-873-5244 or 1-800-731-2848. If contacting the organization to donate to Klein and Isserow’s efforts, CMDA’s Roy Grinshpan asked that people mention this article, so that CMDA can properly credit the right fund with their donation.
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