US synagogue volunteer guards learn mass casualty response from Israeli medics
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.WESTCHESTER COUNTY, New York — A volunteer synagogue security guard struggled to wrap a tourniquet around the thigh of a “terror victim” who shouted and writhed on the ground in agony.Another volunteer moved to pin down the victim’s flailing upper body, and an Israeli medic offered a marker that the guard could use to write the time on the victim’s forehead to inform medics when they arrived.The volunteer applying the tourniquet, a middle-aged theater professional from New York City, tied a T-shirt around the victim’s other leg in a second, improvised tourniquet. She inserted the marker into a knot and cranked it in a circle to cinch the shirt tight.“Listen, it’s not the right way, but it’s stopping the bleeding, and you move on to the next patient,” said another volunteer, a veteran medic. “We’re not going to have 100 tourniquets…
The Community Security Service (CSS), a US-based volunteer synagogue security group, has partnered with Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's national emergency response service, to provide mass casualty response training to synagogue security guards. This collaboration, announced by CSS and American Friends of Magen David Adom, aims to equip volunteers with critical skills for terror attack aftermaths, drawing on Israel's extensive experience. The first two-day course, held in Westchester County, New York, trained 20 volunteers from across the US on MDA's "First Seven Minutes" protocol, focusing on stopping critical bleeds, triaging victims, and communicating with dispatchers. Benjamin Erbs, CSS Senior Vice President for Training and Security, stated the program teaches guards "how to begin treating victims and preparing for first responders’ arrival in the aftermath of an attack." The training emphasizes that medical intervention only begins after a scene is secured, acknowledging the time it takes for professional first responders to arrive and engage.
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