Meet the Experts
Ronit Glaser
Magen David Adom (MDA) is Israel’s national emergency medical, disaster and ambulance service. So in short, when there’s an accident, terror attack, catastrophe or mass casualty incident, its MDA that comes to the rescue and MDA that’s usually first on the scene. MDA is a household name in Israel, regarded with trust. When you call MDA, MDA will come—guaranteed. But on October 7, that proved impossible.
Veteran EMT and dispatch officer Ronit arrived at the Magen David Adom Jerusalem dispatch center on the morning of October 7 as the sirens wailed. She spent the next 13 hours taking calls from petrified civilians begging for help, equally terrified family members looking for loved ones and colleagues facing the Hamas terrorists in the field while saving lives.
One of these calls came from a 9-year-old boy hiding in the closet with his 6-year-old sister, covered in the blood of their murdered mother. Another came from Amit Mann, a 22-year-old fellow paramedic later killed by Hamas terrorists while treating patients at the Kibbutz Be’eri. Ronit speaks candidly about the difficulty of trying to help people in an active massacre situation. With no idea when help would reach them, she was forced to improvise, offering medical advice and a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. This is her story.
