For the third time in the last twelve months, our patients were moved to our Sheltered Underground Hospital soon after the first missiles were fired from Iran this week. June, 2025 — February, 2026 — and now again this June.
The resilient, automatic call to action of our staff to slowly and carefully move each patient downstairs cannot be sufficiently commended.
One bed at a time into the elevator with several staff members accompanying the bed, and attached equipment-especially for our patients on ventilators.
When our eight-storey Samson Building was planned and constructed over ten years ago, architects planned for the two underground floors to serve as the sheltered facility to withstand chemical and bacterial missile attacks to accommodate up to 300 patients. For years, the space remained empty. Then, when Covid hit, the facility became the hospital in Israel caring for the largest amount of patients with Covid with as many as 200 patients in our protected underground facility. All our engineers had to do was to reverse the air conditioning system to keep the ‘bad air’ in the building, instead of as originally designed, to keep the contaminated air out.
This short video will show you our staff at work moving the patients downstairs yesterday. Note how many staff members are required to move one patient. If the patient is on a ventilator, as many as five people are required, including a doctor.
And now, once again, we have made sure that, when we are attacked by missiles, our patients are protected.