Page 5 - Emergency Department Project, Soroka Medical Center_Neat

The People Behind the Masks

The medical staff in the Emergency Room at Soroka Hospital are at risk of infection every day
as part of their job. They come home to their families exhausted and are afraid of infecting
them as well, and despite this they do their best to keep smiling. Dean Ariel, photographer
and medical student, presents the real lives of COVID-19 heroes

Dean Ariel, Tuesday, April 21, 2020, 7:39 a.m.
https://healthy.walla.co.il/item/3352539

Today, everywhere we go, we encounter infecting them as well, and despite this, they Optimistic. Dr. Dan Schwarzfuchs, Deputy Director of
slogans that have become trite cliches: do their best to keep smiling. Soroka and Director of the ER (Photo: Dean Ariel)
“Corona crisis,” “Covid-19 pandemic,” “the
war on Covid-19” and “together we can beat Dr. Dan Schwarzfuchs, Deputy Director of I wanted to speak with Nofar Bar-Noy, a fifth-
this” are but a few. “We all salute medical Soroka and Director of the ER, welcomed year medical student at Ben-Gurion University,
personnel” is one of the signs I see most me with a big smile. I asked him about the and the chair of Asran (Association of Medical
frequently now a days. As a medical student situation in the Emergency Room, and I was and Health Sciences Students in the Negev).
who is also a volunteer during this pandemic sure that I would hear all gloom and doom, Her daily schedule is packed and now she
and who has been documenting the staff but Dr. Schwarzfuch surprised me when he is also volunteering to perform Covid-19
working in the field, it is important for me to said, “I’m optimistic and don’t think that testing and works as a physician assistant in
remind you that there are real people behind we’ll end up like Italy. The ER at Soroka is the the Surgical ER at Soroka. I was barely able to
the words, “medical personnel.” largest in Israel in terms of the number of get her to give a quick glance in my direction
patients seen - approximately 150,000 people while she was busy in the stitching room - a
They all have faces, names and positions: come into the ER at Soroka every year. Now, treatment room, where procedures such as
Nursing staff - nurses, nurse’s aides - orderlies, during the crisis, there has been a dramatic stitching up wounds that do not require an
doctors, security staff and more. This time, I’m drop in the number of visits, because people operating room and can be handled in the ER,
sharing photographs of the medical staff in are afraid of being infected. The cases we are performed.
the Emergency Room at Soroka in Beer Sheva see are the most serious, when treatment
- the faces of the very people who, as part of absolutely cannot be delayed. This takes the
their jobs, put themselves at risk of infection pressure of the ER and allows us to dedicate
on a daily basis, the people who come home more time to each patient than we normally
to their families exhausted and are afraid of can when things are so busy.