By Sol Stephens

The 250,000 loyal citizens of Ashdod, Israel's fifth largest city, are experiencing an on-going medical nightmare that continues to exact a hefty price.

Just hours before the most recent ceasefire with Hamas went into effect, a Grad missile fell just outside the entrance to the Ashtar family's residence in the heart of Ashdod. Though most of the family members were able to scramble to safety into a reinforced room, the sheer force of the explosion not only destroyed parked cars- deadly shrapnel shards pierced concrete walls, windows and human flesh. "My husband's nephew didn't have enough time to make it into the reinforced room. Though he wasn't in the street when the rocket hit, his leg was hit by a piece of shrapnel that nearly severed one of his main arteries," Ronit Ashtar revealed. "What's particularly frustrating is that our nephew nearly bled to death because there isn't an emergency medical facility or trauma center in Ashdod, so by the time the ambulance was able to transport him to a hospital nearly 50 minutes away in Rehovot, he had lost quite a bit of blood. Many of us are still suffering from various forms of psychological traumas because of the Grads, but we would rather ride things out at home, instead of spending so much time on the road going to a hospital that isn't equipped to handle these incidents."

According to statistics, of the 28 medical emergency rooms in Israel, just three are located in the country's entire southern region, with none located in Ashdod. And despite Israel's world- renowned medical achievements, the country suffers from one of the lowest numbers of hospital accessibility (i.e. patient beds) in the Western world. This paradox has inexplicably placed the residents of Ashdod in mortal danger.

A grassroots effort by the Refuah V'Yeshuah non-profit organization has spearheaded development of the Ashdod Emergency Medical Center, an independent facility that endeavors to provide state-of-the-art medical care to the local community. Though the external physical structure is nearly complete and much of the internal electrical, telecom and computer systems are ready to come on-line, the state-of-the art facility is in the midst of trying to raise an additional $10 million dollars that will allow it to purchase the vital medical equipment needed to open its doors.

The nine storey facility, which comprises 180,000 sq. feet (17,000 sq. meters) will house:

§         an emergency room, including medical, surgical, orthopedic, pediatric and women's "ER" facilities, as well as a complete trauma room

§         cardiology institute, heart treatment and physiotherapy rooms

§         obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, mammography and pain clinics

§         dialysis, gastroenterology and orthopedics departments

§         X-ray, ultra-sound, CT and nuclear medical stations

      For more info: 

                             Website:  www.AshdodMC.org

                             Address:  American Friends of AMC

                                                                     1310 48th street

                                                               Brooklyn, New York 11219

                             Email:  info@AshdodMC.org