'A true mitzvah:' Westmoreland doctor volunteers in Israel to help civilians

Dr. Sharon Goldstein has spent the last few weeks of 2023 in Israel, riding long distances in an ambulance, treating patients impacted by war.

“The other day, I started in Jerusalem and ended up in Tel Aviv,” she said. “They cover a large area. It’s hard work. Mostly, we’re on the ambulance going here and there.”

Goldstein, a breast surgeon with Independence Health System Westmore­land Area, is in Israel as part of a volunteer program with Magen David Adom, the country’s ambulance service.

Goldstein, who is Jewish and has family members who live in Israel, is spending three weeks as part of an ambulance crew, helping with daily duties in the central region of the country. She arrived Dec. 17 and will stay until the beginning of January, when she’ll return to her family in Pittsburgh.

She says she felt called to help in a time of crisis, in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. Though she is not working in Gaza, she has encountered many patients who have been hit hard by the war or who know people who have died.

“I really felt pulled towards participating and trying to make things better,” Goldstein said.

According to the Associated Press, Israel has said that about 1,200 people were killed Oct. 7 and about 240 were taken hostage. An estimated 129 hostages are still being held after dozens were freed.

More than 21,600 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed since, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza.

Dr. Carol Fox, Independence’s chief medical officer, praised Goldstein’s work.

“We are so proud of Dr. Goldstein for taking on this important work,” Fox said in a statement. “She is giving of her talents and her own time to support those in need in Israel. It is a true mitzvah (good deed).”

Volunteer duties

Goldstein has previous experience treating trauma patients.

“I did my general surgery training in the Bronx, and had very extensive trauma experience working in the ER and doing trauma surgery,” she said. “It’s something I’ve always found fascinating and wanted to be a part of. My training is as a general surgeon and as a breast surgeon.”

Many of the skills needed as a breast surgeon transfer to being able to work on an ambulance, she explained.

“What’s similar is being able to assess patients under urgent conditions and to try to see who needs further care right away — IV fluids, medications, cardiac resuscitation — and who can wait and be stabilized to go to the emergency room,” she said. “I’m on an intensive care ambulance, which is the higher level and has paramedics.”

Patients and locals have been very welcoming, Goldstein said. She is grateful to be able to hear about people’s lives and help out.

“You get to know people’s stories, you go in their homes, you have a real feel for what people are going through. Everyone you meet knows someone who has been killed,” she said. “Everyone knows someone, everyone is going to funerals. It is a whole population really affected by this.”

Filling care gaps

Goldstein got her start as a volunteer when she was in elementary school.

“In my fifth grade class, we had a teacher who was very social-minded, and we were all required to do volunteer work,” Goldstein said. “The teacher set up these opportunities for us, and it really changed who I was.”

According to its website, Magen David Adom, also called MDA, has more than 26,000 volunteers providing medical care to patients on ambulances, in stations and at blood drives.

Goldstein got connected with MDA through her involvement with American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel, an organization she previously signed on with.

“We’re taking care of a lot of different problems,” she said. “Everyone’s impacted (by the war), and that impacts their daily life and how they are going about their duties and taking care of their health.”

Brian Eglash, senior vice president and chief development officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, explained that volunteers such as Goldstein fill gaps in Israel when other medical professionals are called in to the reserves as soldiers.

“Often, when there’s war in Israel, the entire country mobilizes. Many of those reservists are medical professionals,” he said. “A number of the hospitals were depleted of their professionals because they were called up into action.”

The Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh also coordinated with a different volunteer program, the Emergency Volunteers Project, to train and send medical professionals from Pittsburgh to Israel to help in hospitals.

“This is really, really important,” Eglash said. “This is what they do: People volunteer in times of need.”

Goldstein will be returning to the U.S. after Jan. 8, but she hopes the war will end soon.

“This is a war that no one wants,” she said. “(I) hope for a peaceful New Year for us all.”