One of the effects of chemotherapy is that the cancer patient’s immune system shuts down for the duration of the treatments.
“If an oncology patient develops even a slight fever, they need to rush to the emergency room to undergo observation and receive treatment via antibiotics if necessary,” said Michal Geller, the mother of Raaya Geller, a 16-year-old woman from the town of Hispin in the Golan Heights who has been living with osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer, for the past year and a half.
“For an oncology patient, making it to all the appointments is hard enough, but if a patient contracts illness on top of their treatment, even a strong cold, they must go back once again to the hospital,” said Geller. “Normal treatment sessions, follow-up appointments, and testing 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 reaching the nearest hospital may include several hours of driving in each direction, the situation can quickly become untenable. This is compounded for families with small children. A few hours of treatment, or an appointment, become an all-day event, resulting in the patient sleeping 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 to care for our other children. It is heart-wrenching every time,” said Geller
The CEO of United Hatzalah Eli Pollack, and the organization’s President and Founder Eli Beer, decided to intervene,” said Beer. “Our goal, together with our partner Lahak, is to cut down response time so that people don’t have to wait for hours to receive medical treatment. 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 of 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,” Beer said. “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 emergency or a regular treatment or checkup, then we need to do it. The country needs to do it. Until that happens, United Hatzalah is stepping in to fill this essential service and cut down the travel time for these children.”
Dov Geller, Raaya’s father added: “This is an incredibly important project, especially for children, because the hospitals in northern Israel, Poriya, Ziv, Emek, and others, do not offer a pediatric oncology department. So the challenge is doubled, because we must go to the center of the country to receive treatment. We shouldn’t live in a society where the life of a child from Givatayim is worth more than one from the periphery, but that seems to be what’s happening. I remember one time Raaya got a fever and we had to take her to the hospital. We went to Poriya Medical Center since it was nearest to us. After waiting for a while, they sent us back to Safra Hospital in Tel Hashomer for treatment since they couldn’t help us.”
“This is scary for me,” Raaya said. “We are told that we need to be in the hospital within half an hour, and there is simply no way to do that. It was a bit weird for me now, arriving in 40 minutes. I recall one trip back from the hospital after a treatment cycle that lasted a week. I was feeling awful. I was suffering from severe nausea and I vomited a lot on the ride. It took hours of suffering through that trip just to get home so I would recuperate. Had there been a helicopter available to take me then, it would have helped immensely, because, even though I still would have been nauseous, my suffering would be cut down to 40 minutes, instead of four hours. This is an incredible project, truly incredible. ”
Last Thursday, Raaya was flown in one of the helicopters run by Lahak and United Hatzalah and was able to reach her appointments on time and return home by mid-afternoon. “Raaya wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but it truly was incredible,” said Dov. “Being accompanied the entire way by an expert medical team, and the Lahak pilot, who were all personable and caring, was simply a great experience. Much better than driving down a highway full of traffic jams. This is the first time I have felt that someone out there was seeing us, seeing what we’re going through, and finding a way to truly help us.”
The pilot project will continue with another flight for a young cancer patient from the Negev region in the coming weeks and after that, the project will undergo a final review before becoming a regular mainstay of operation for United Hatzalah with the hope that it will encompas additional hospitals.
