From the Burns Unit and a Beechworth boy to advanced trauma units in Israel/Palestine

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Keith Ryall

The Trauma Unit – Carlton Rotary has been very proud to be a small part of Project Rozana, an international service project that was originally a project of the Rotary eClub of District 7610 (Northern Virginia USA) and the Rotary Club of Holon (Israel).

When we were approached in December 2021 to be part of the worldwide Global Grant Application (provided by Rotary International), we were told this was a unique opportunity for Rotary in Australia to provide support to help build bridges to peace in the Middle East.

There, health is really the one space where Israelis and Palestinians meet in a positive and respectful way every minute of every day.

In a nutshell, the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training program will help train 50 Palestinian and 50 Israeli trauma doctors in Israel. The knowledge gained will help the Palestinian community and will help build professional relationships between the participants from both countries. An app will also be developed to enable participants to communicate after the program is complete.

On May 24, we had our first update on the ATLS by Zoom (see picture) with a truly international audience including three from our own Rotary District 9800. An update of the program was presented by Dr Adam Goldstein who was the lead of the program and Dr Itay Zuaretz, both of whom are instructors on the program. Two participants of the program (one Israeli and one Palestinian doctor) gave a rundown of their experiences with the program.

Both found the program to be professionally very useful and personally rewarding as they had the opportunity to learn alongside doctors whom they would otherwise not have the opportunity to meet. There are five courses planned as part of an USD$85,000 project funded entirely by Rotary … doing good in the world.

Dr Goldstein said that there was an intention to gather statistics on the outcome of the program (such as how this program compares to other ATLS programs around the world) and to present it at a medical conference at a future date.

The Beechworth Story. All in the month of May

Carlton Rotary is a member club of the Rotary Inner Melbourne Emergency Relief Network (RIMERN) which has been mentioned in previous Inner City News editions. On May 2, we were contacted by a friend of a social worker at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) about a Beechworth family (patients David and Amy) who tragically had their house on the outskirts of Beechworth destroyed by fire.

Their son Jack, aged 12, suffered severe burns and was rushed to the Burns Unit at the RCH where he is still being treated. Due to very kind-hearted locals (mainly from Beechworth), a three-bedroom house in Kensington was made available to the family for the three-month anticipated stay in the RCH for Jack.

They also have a younger son Matthew who survived the fire without any injuries and is staying with his grandmother in Beechworth. Unfortunately, Jack and his mother Amy tested positive for COVID last week so any further surgery must be postponed until they are both out of isolation. RIMERN was able to provide enough cutlery and crockery for a family of four as well as various other essential kitchen utensils, plus doonas, sheets, and pillows. Another kind donor had donated three double beds. Thanks to the skills of the surgeons at the RCH, Jack has made progress with some dressing coming off his face and he is now using his left hand as skin grafts are in place.

Prior to this, he has not been able to do anything for himself as he could not use either hand. There will be an update on Jack’s progress in the July Inner City News edition.

Contact president Keith Ryall on [email protected] if you need further information on any Rotary programs. •

For more information: rotary.org and carltonrotary.org.au

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