Since before the founding of the Jewish State, the men and women of Israel’s emergency medical response organization Magen David Adom (MDA) have worked together with all communities in Israel to save lives with the latest in medical care and human compassion. Since 1930, MDA has also been at the forefront of medical technology, developing advances that have saved countless lives all over the world. As Israel’s national ambulance, blood-services, and disaster-relief organization, MDA serves as emergency medical first-responders to the state’s more than 8.5 million people. MDA also provides 100% of the blood to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and works in partnership with the IDF to ensure lives of wounded soldiers are saved in emergency situations.
While MDA is now well-known around the world as a leading life-saving organization, Among MDA’s first triumphs was the creation of its blood bank and the launching of a volunteer blood donor organization in 1936. In 1950,the “Magen David Adom Law” officially recognized MDA as Israel’s National Rescue service and made special mention of the blood services as well.
Even though MDA is mandated by the Jewish state to help all citizens, it is not funded through taxes and relies on donations from around the world. Fortunately, as thousands of people from the United States, Guatemala, Haiti, and other nations where MDA has been among the first to respond to natural and man-made disasters continue to show their appreciation, MDA continues to grow and flourish and to serve more people more effectively. In fact, over 70% of all people served by MDA never see a bill related to their life-saving service.
As the blood bank was one of MDA’s first official developments, it may not be a surprise that one of their latest and most groundbreaking (literally) is an underground blood bank. Located 50 feet underground in a neighborhood about ten miles outside of Tel Aviv that is distinctly mixed in terms of population, the six-story, 5,000-square meter, $130 million MDA medical facility will service the nation’s medical and military needs and offers the world a new model for safeguarding vital materials even in times of war, terror, or natural disaster.
“The new blood services center will enable MDA to better respond to the increasing needs of both the civilian and military systems regarding blood and blood components,” MDA Blood Services Director and renowned hematologist Dr. Eilat Shinar explained in a recent interview, touting both the facility’s increased laboratory space in which to conduct research and also new technologies that will “improve blood quality and safety” and allow Shinar and her colleagues to work uninterrupted, regardless of what is going on above ground.
Scheduled to open in 2020, the facility is set to be called the Marcus National Blood Services Center, after Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus’s Marcus Foundation. In addition to storing life-saving blood and other materials, the lower floors will also serve as a bomb shelter to protect the medical team and others during the frequent emergencies that the Jewish state is made to endure. In addition to blood separation by centrifugation, freezing filtration and labeling, blood type testing and testing for infectious diseases, the facility will also feature a quality control lab that will oversee all activities.
Though MDA’s current blood supply hovers around 280,000 units (of which 250,000 are sent to hospitals around the country and to the Israeli Defense Forces as needed) Shinar admits that the main facility in which the blood is stored is “not safe enough” and that it could be tainted or destroyed in a concentrated attack. Shinar has been making such claims for many years and is gratified to see the progress the new facility is making.
“We realized that if we wanted to prevent a major health crisis in Israel,” Shinar said, “we [had to] build an improved and highly secured blood bank.”
Shinar also notes that, during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict known as Operation Protective Edge, MDA Director General General Eli Bin ordered Israel’s blood supply to be moved to an underground shelter as many Israeli cities came under heavy rocket fire. The success of that operation only proved the need for and encouraged the development of a permanent underground facility. Also, as Israel’s population continues to grow, it is even more vital to have a sufficient and safe blood supply that covers all blood types present in the nation’s diverse population, which is expected to top 20 million in the next generation.
“We are fully aware that we need a bigger place,” Shinar says, noting that MDA will continue to maintain the current facility as a backup.
That is why MDA needs your support. It is truly the lifeblood of the Jewish State.
To learn more about the National Blood Services Center and MDA’s lifesaving work in Israel, please contact Monique Martin, New England Area Director, at mmartin@afmda.org or 781-489-5166.
