STORY:
If you are thinking that this is a real disaster you can unwind – it’s actually the 2008 MDA Olympics. In the heart of the desert teams of medics and paramedics from around the world are going through 11 stations of staged treatment and safety assignments. In the process they are dealing with various scenarios, and dramatic actors, that test their capabilities, skills and professionalism in saving lives.

[Eyal Zahavi, Paramedic Evaluator]:
“In our station we had a leopard that attacked a couple and the women freighted the tiger away, the guy is without leg and he is bleeding, and it is very important to see the teamwork to stop the bleeding and to ventilate him.”

Forty teams from international emergency services from Israel and around the world are taking part in the competition.

[Zachranar Abrahamkova, Czech Republic Team Paramedic]:
“We came here to take some thrill and to have some experiences and before we came here we were training six or ten times in the Czech Republic so we tried to rehearse and coordinate the team.”.

In the different categories, valuators measure and grade the capabilities as well as professional expertise of the competitors.

[Eyal Zahavi, Paramedic Evaluator]:
“We are looking for fast work, we are looking for accurate work, we are look for teamwork, very important the team works together, to see them speaking with the family and or with the patients.”.

The medical teams are not only faced with mainstream scenarios, in one station they are required to ride camels in order to save their patient. ‘We are going to save a baby'.

These diverse and complicated scenes, which the competitors are faced with, are determining who will be the ‘Best Medical Team’.

NTD Israel