Evening star., 1951-12-26
Primitive Sanitation
FoiIs Modern Medical
Advancement in Israel
By Frances Burns

BOSTON, Dec. 26.-Americar
medical schools may think they
are weighed down with problems
but they don't know what trouble
is, says a Boston surgeon ane
teacher who has just returned
from Israel.
In Israel to help organize med
ical teaching along modern lines
through the Hebrew University
Hadassah Medical organization
DR.. Jacob Fine found health prob
lens of Biblical times hanging like
millstones on modern concepts Of
medicine.
The new nation wants to train
its young men in the use of anti
biotics and hormones and all the
latest things in medicine.
1t is faced with a desperate need
OF showing new immigrants how
to use soap, to avoid the filth dis
eases that haven't been around
our major cities in upwards of 1OC
years.
Backed by Women.
Backed by the Hadassah women
the medical school and hospital
are to be organized along modern
lines. applying everything known
OF modern medical teaching in a
school and university hospital, ex-
plains DR.. Fine, professor of sur
gerry at Harvard and chief of the
surgical service at the Beth Israel
hospital here.
But no Jew is turned away from
Israel because of poverty, disease,
ignorance or national background
AS a result the medical profess
sion has had to help establish
nurseries for tuberculous babies.
1t has had to cope with COM
plicated parasitic disease which is
carried to bathers in streams and
was encountered by American
troops at Leyte and elsewhere in
the Pacific in World War II.
Malnutrition Is Threat.
1t has to treat trachoma and be
on a constant lookout for typhus.
With a shortage of food, NAL
nutrition is an ever-present threat.
The entire medical setup in Is
rael is that of a man pulling him.
self up by his bootstraps. In this
case, mighty tugs are being given
by Hadassah which is providing
81 million to $40 million a year
for medicine and teaching of
children in Israel.
But Israel lost its modern He
brew University and hospital on
Mount Scopus through the Arab
corridor. Now the the hospital is
doing the best it can in old build
tngS in Jerusalem. A new site has
been selected for a medical school
and 300 to 400 bed hospital five
miles southwest of the new city
OF Jerusalem where it will not be
exposed to any future Arab
attacks.
Architect Plans Buildings.
A New York architect is plan
ming a new structure that will
embody everything that has been
learned of proper hospital build
ing and university teaching in the
United States. There will be
patient quarters, surgeries, lab
oratories. a home for nurses,
housing for hospital personnel. AL
transport system will have to be
built out from Jerusalem.
Some departments actually
will have to be created" DR.. FineI
explains. 1T will be necessary toI
find appointees for them, budgets
to carry them on. administrative
departments. There is great
need in Israel for administrators,
In a nation that is having toI
become modern over night.
Lack of Beds Acute.
The pressure of space and thel
lack OF beds is so acute that some
Of the fruits of Hadassah's laborsI
cannot yet be realized" DR.. Fine
told the HadaSsah women at their
national meeting. "In the surgi-
cal department Hadassah's fellow
ship program has produced al
neurosurgeon, a genito-urinary
surgeon, a thoracic surgeon, AM
surgeon, etc.
These men stand ready to de-
velop these fields if they can be
given beds to work with but
go per cent of the beds are taken
up by emergencies that are con-
stantly coming in. There is
no other hospital in Jerusalem
that can deal adequately with
these cases-broken bones, burns
children smashed by exploding
grenades they play with in the
rubble left by war, sniper's bull
lets in the bellies of wanderers
into no mans land