With the war continuing to rage in the Gaza Strip and some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas being returned several months ago, trauma care medicine has taken on an increased importance in Israel, and one Israeli doctor who is native to the DMV area is in the middle of it all.
Dr. Adam Goldstein was born in Washington, D.C., and immigrated to Israel after high school, eventually becoming a trauma surgeon and the head of trauma surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, where he was one of the first doctors to treat the hostages that were released by Hamas as part of a deal with Israel.
“Wolfson Medical Center was the first hospital to get the first group of hostages, with just five elderly women,” Goldstein said. “We took the top floor of the hospital, and we basically made it a private hospital for receiving these hostages and we did it very privately.”
He said that the hostages were brought in through a secret entrance and that there was no press or any type of extra attention on the patients given the sensitive nature of the situation and the trauma they’d been through.
Goldstein said that it was a highly emotional time for the staff on duty, the families waiting to see their missing loved ones and the hostages themselves, adding that he felt it was an honor to be a part of the efforts to help them after they were released from captivity following their abduction by Hamas on Oct. 7.
“Everybody was crying, everybody was losing it. And they were special people. One of the women, the first thing she said to me was, ‘I’m sorry to make you work on a Friday night.’ They’re spectacular people. And again, I was just a small part of the team,” Goldstein said.
But that experience has only been one important part of a larger set of circumstances that the trauma team at Wolfson Medical Center and doctors across Israel are facing as the Israel-Hamas war drags on and more people sustain injuries due to the conflict.
Goldstein said that when the fighting first started and the Oct. 7 attack occurred, it was an extremely difficult time working in the trauma care unit. There were rockets fired from Gaza falling frequently and the medical staff was dealing with having loved ones fighting in the war and trying to cope with the loss of people they cared for in the attacks.
“It was a sad time and we had to be prepared for everything. All our vacations got canceled, people got called up to reserve duty. We were short-staffed. We didn’t know who was going to be around,” Goldstein said. “Everyone was affected by the conflict, and everyone had family in the army. We had people from the hospital, our friends, who were killed.”
And with all the trauma and injuries that are being sustained by people across Israel, the hospital has been busy, and the doctors, including Goldstein, have been working to train people in basic trauma medicine in order to keep up with the situation and render the care that is needed by so many people.
Goldstein said that as the head of the hospital’s trauma department, he and his team have to worry about the entire system, from bystanders helping a victim to the medics that are first on the scene and beyond.
He added that with the possibility of a mass casualty event there might be doctors in other specialties that haven’t dealt with trauma medicine since their time in medical school that might benefit from the refresher training that his department is doing.
“They might need to do something, might need to help, and it’s better that they know what they’re doing. Our team — me and my trauma department — are training people pretty much nonstop, along with treating our normal patients,” Goldstein said.
It’s a lot of work but Goldstein said that there’s a huge benefit through the training in increasing the odds of someone’s survival if they’re badly injured.
“When there’s a conflict, there’s just more violence and more chance of injury. For the general population, the more health care providers who can provide better care, it’s vital and it’s lifesaving,” Goldstein said.
Another thing that has helped Goldstein and his team at Wolfson Medical Center has been support for Israel from abroad that he said has helped them boost the types of care they can provide, noting that there was a lot of money donated to the hospital’s trauma department.
He added that the donations have helped hospitals in need around the country and gave his team at Wolfson Medical Center access to vital supplies and equipment.
Despite the difficulties they’ve faced since the outbreak of the war, Goldstein said there are many ways that people around the world can help support the trauma center at his hospital and the larger medical system in Israel.
“I encourage anyone to reach out to me and they can come and visit and just see what we’re about. They can read about the project I’m bringing together that’s building a regional trauma care program,” Goldstein said.