Ready to Serve?

I took my midterm yesterday morning and thankfully did well. They didn't hand them back, but the instructor read out loud the names of everyone who got over a 97 and I was on the list. I felt like I was a little kid again. I can't remember the last time grades were made public like that! Still, it is nice to know I am on the right track.

Yesterday morning was also funny because of the prank war in which my class is involved. The class next door took our Annie's (the dummies we use, including a baby) and hung them from the ceiling with a suicide note. In response, a group of people from the class snuck in and hung ribbon all over the room so you couldn't even walk through it. It was pretty awesome- if I find a picture I will put it up.

We had a special lecture after dinner last night about mass casualties, and it was chilling. We were told how mass casualties are handled and how to decide who would be treated and who wouldn't. The paramedic who lectured us had handled over 30 mass casualties here in Israel, and I could see on his face how affected he was. He told us that we can always decide not to go to a mass casualty should we be called, because the things you see there will change your mind forever. We saw a movie with real footage from a weekend of 3 terror attacks, and I can only imagine how much more gruesome these scenes are in person.

Now that we have finished the mass casualty lecture, we are all officially on call if something happens. I have no idea what I would do if I were called- I'd like to think I would follow through and help on the scene. One part that haunts me the most is the decision step of triage: everyone gets labeled emergency or not an emergency. If someone isn't breathing, they are tagged not an emergency (the chances of survival are slim and responders should focus on the other victims who maybe can be saved). I just can't imagine evaluating a human being who couldn't breathe, and sticking a "not an emergency" sign on him/her instead of performing cpr.

For now, I will just hope that there will be no mass casualty events so nobody has to make these kinds of decisions.