Rambam Hospital Again at the Front of Worst Fire in Israeli History - HAIFA, Friday, December 03, 2010 16:35:34 - Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa has once again demonstrated the central role it plays in the State of Israel's trauma-and-rescue network.

On Thursday, the hospital admitted the four most severely wounded casualties of the devastating brushfire that raged out of control in the Carmel Mountains, and which has claimed the lives of more than 40 rescue personnel.

Rambam serves Northern Israel's more than 2 million residents and is the tertiary, regional referral center for the North's eleven district hospitals. It is ranked as one of the world's best level-1 trauma facilities, and in 2009 constructed a world-class Emergency Trauma Center; the hospital is thus exceptionally well prepared for this sort of emergency.

Immediately upon receiving word of the fire's eruption, the hospital staff, which is trained for mass casualty situations (MCS), went on high alert. Rambam has acquired vast experience in events of this sort during wars and terrorist attacks, and this was expressed by its quick preparedness: tens of physicians and nurses made ready to receive the injured.

By terrible ill fortune, the catastrophic fire did not give most of the people trapped by it a chance, and only the most severely wounded of the few survivors were evacuated to Rambam.