A unique course, the first of its kind in Israel, in the field of pediatric disaster medicine was recently held at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center.
The course brought together doctors and nurses from pediatric emergency departments from all over the country, including representatives from Hadassah, Rambam, Soroka, HaEmek, and other medical centers, with the aim of providing teams with professional tools for dealing with complex emergency situations involving children.
Pediatric disaster medicine is an emerging field in the medical world, combining pediatrics, emergency medicine, trauma, and crisis management. The need for this field is especially acute given the fact that children respond differently to emergencies than adults, both medically and behaviorally.
Sometimes they have difficulty expressing their distress, need different doses, monitoring of other indicators, and a more tailored therapeutic approach.
The field at Hadassah is led by Dr. Leah Sarna Kahn, a senior physician at the Pediatric Emergency Department at Hadassah Ein Kerem, a graduate of the Harvard Medical School's disaster medicine training program, and who also has accumulated experience in medical aid missions to crisis areas around the world.
The course was conducted under her leadership, in collaboration with Prof. Miklos Bala, Director of the Trauma Unit at Hadassah, and Prof. Saar Hashabiya, Director of the Pediatric Emergency Department at Hadassah. According to Dr. Serna Kahn, "Children are not small adults. Their physiological response to a disaster is different, their medical needs are different, and the treatment methods and preparation of the system must also be adapted. In real emergencies, there is not always enough manpower, equipment or time. Therefore, early preparation, knowledge and practice are a central part of the ability to save lives.".
During the course, participants dealt with scenarios that simulated real-life situations, including a mass casualty event, damage to medical infrastructure, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises.
Alongside professional lectures, there were simulations, tabletop exercises and casualty triage exercises, which allowed teams to practice rapid decision-making, collaborative work and resource sharing under pressure. Hadassah notes that this is a nationally important initiative, designed to strengthen the preparedness of the Israeli health system for emergencies, especially in cases where a rapid, professional and child-friendly medical response is required.
