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The Crowd Crush at Mount Meron: Emergency Medical Services Response to a Silent Mass Casualty Incident

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2022

Donald Theodore Gordon Daniel ,
Evan Avraham Alpert Open the ORCID record for Evan Avraham Alpert [Opens in a new window]  and
Eli Jaffe
Donald Theodore Gordon Daniel*
Affiliation:
Community Division, Magen David Adom, Or-Yehuda, Israel
Evan Avraham Alpert
Affiliation:
Department of Emergency Medicine, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel Faculty of Medicine, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Eli Jaffe
Affiliation:
Community Division, Magen David Adom, Or-Yehuda, Israel Department of Emergency Medicine, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel
*
Corresponding author: Donald Theodore Gordon Daniel, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

On April 30, 2021, a total of 45 died and 112 were injured in a crowd crush at a religious festival on Mount Meron, Israel. Unlike a bomb blast, building collapse, mass shooting, or stampede, the incident lacked a dramatic, noticeable trigger and may be termed a “silent mass casualty incident (MCI).” This may have resulted in a slight delay in response. Magen David Adom (MDA)—Israel’s National Emergency Medical Services Organization—was the main prehospital response to the MCI. MDA’s intense planning, organization of medical infrastructure, and on-site MCI drill before the event allowed for the rapid, coordinated treatment and evacuation of casualties by ambulance and helicopter. The use of volunteers facilitated an effective response to the event. A “rolling reinforcement” system of ambulances helped treat and transport those at the scene while placing staff at stations throughout the country to serve routine emergency calls.

Type
Report from the Field
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 16 , Issue 6 , December 2022 , pp. 2691 - 2693
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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