First aid triage: Put terrorists before victims?

In the midst of the ongoing wave of Palestinian terror attacks against Israelis, a controversy has brewed with regard to how Emergency Medical Services (EMS) organizations decide whom to treat first on the scene of an attack. The firestorm began after Eli Bin, director general of Israel’s Magen David Adom (MDA) said that paramedics could choose to treat injured Palestinian terrorists before treating Jewish Israeli victims with lighter wounds.

“When I see my enemy wounded I no longer treat him as a terrorist, but as a human being. He has surrendered, he no longer poses a threat, so I’ll treat him,” said.

Criticism of Bin’s remarks has ranged from a social media user writing that “a terrorist has essentially already forfeited his life by deciding to carry out an attack” to Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) calling such a decision is “inconceivable.”

How often does a clear-cut choice between providing first treatment to a terrorist or a vic-tim actually exist?

MDA treats patients based on the PreHospital Trauma Life Support (PHTLS) guidelines, which educate on the principles of caring for trauma patients in the field, along with some additional Israeli guidelines. The PHTLS system was founded in the U.S. by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT) and is now an educational program available to EMS providers in 47 countries, including Israel.

MDA strives to establish a triage system in which anyone with life-threatening injuries is “receiving the treatment first,” Yagodovsky said.

During a terror attack, however, police will first deal with any dangerous people at the scene until they are no longer a threat. Said Yagodovsky: “Until we get clearance to approach a terrorist from the police, we do not approach [and in the meantime] we are treating others.”