Professor Rivkind Interview: Transcript

As the head of Surgery and Trauma at Haddassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Professor Avi Rivkind bears the brunt of the Middle East's unconditional warfare. 

As the head of Surgery and Trauma at Haddassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Professor Avi Rivkind bears the brunt of the Middle East's unconditional warfare. 

Kevin talked to the man charged with healing those hit by suicide bombs about the worst the professor has seen, the physics of blast trauma, and why sometimes, as a doctor, you lie to a patient.

You can watch the interview or, if you are having trouble with the video player, read the transcript below.

PROFESSOR RIVKIND: I ask her, "What's your name?" She says "Shiri." I ask her, "How are you?" She says, "Okay." I told her, "Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

And I saw from the face. You know the color, the color on her face. I cannot describe it, you know, I need to be Chagall.

KEVIN SITES: Shot?

PROFESSOR RIVKIND: No. Pristine. From outside pristine, pristine. Not even one wound. But I remember the face, the color of the face. You know, you need to be Chagall or something, you know the painter, to describe the color. It was not white. It was not grey. It was not yellow. It was...something was wrong, you know, in the color.

I went after to the admitting area and I told everybody immediately, "Intubate her....do everything. Take her to the OR." Because I knew she was bleeding somehow. She's not okay -- internally, not externally.

KS: Outwardly, no wounds.

PR: Nothing, nothing. I remember that one of the heads of the departments told me, "Listen, you are crazy. What you are doing to this beautiful woman? You are intubating her, you are paralyzing her..." We took her to the OR, we opened the chest and the lung was like, you know, smashed liver. Then we open the abdomen. The liver was ... really, she was without liver.

KS: It was decimated.

PR: She was dead after four or five minutes. And then you have to go to the family to explain it. In the mix of it, she had a sister. She was a medical student. That really was a (shakes his head) ... and I remember the last view she was on the bed when we announced she was dead. Long hair. Blonde hair.

KS: How old was she?

PR: She was 22, 23. (Shaking his head.) Just came from South America from, you know, the trip that the young Israelis are doing.

KS: After the Army?

PR: (Smiles, shakes his head "yes.) 

KS: Was there kind of blunt force trauma, right?

PR: Blast trauma. That's the typical blast trauma. Because of...

KS: You had seen that before, so you knew.

PR: I knew exactly that she was...(shakes his head). I saw the color.

KS: And it doesn't have to be an object that hits them...

PR: No, no nothing. It's just the blast. It's only the wave. That's the wave.

KS: Why did that one affect you so much?

PR: You know, I have some patients that affect me. With her, because you know, she spoke. Deep in your heart you know that she is in bad condition. On the other side you are telling her, "Don't worry everything will be okay." And, you know. Immediately you are doing things that from, you know, your expression everything will be okay but you know that...

KS: You know it's not true.

PR: It's not true. It's not easy to follow yourself when you say, "Everything will be okay." And here we are.

 

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