As I’ve written before, I am spending this year after college in Israel. In addition to working, I’ve also used the time to prepare to finish my DPT pre-req’s next year and apply to a DPT program.
I had the chance to visit a children’s physical therapy ward in a hospital in Jerusalem, about an hour-and-a-half from where I currently live.
(A photo I took of the Western Wall and Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem)
It was a very interesting and inspiring experience. You can read the full post at The PT Project, or here:
I recently had the opportunity to shadow some of the physical therapists at the PT ward of the Alyn Children’s Hospital in Jerusalem, Israel. I followed two PTs around for an afternoon as they worked with their patients in a large, sunny room full of toys.
One of the first things that struck me was the diversity of the patients. The four patients I saw happened to represent a microcosm of Israeli society: an Ashkenazi (Eastern European Jew), a Sephardi (Middle Eastern Jew), a Russian immigrant, and a little Arab boy whose physical therapist gave him instructions in Arabic.
I was also made aware of the wide range of circumstances the patients faced. One patient was still recovering from both mental and physical injuries sustained by a rocket sent from Palestinian terrorists in Gaza that hit his Israeli town two years ago. Another boy had cerebral palsy and was learning how to better move his legs with the assistance of crutches. A toddler was receiving treatment for the severe burns that covered most of his body, and a paralyzed teenager injured after a fall was hung in an apparatus meant to exercise his muscles for him.
From nerve damage to muscle conditions to skin problems, their conditions, treatments, and expected outcomes varied tremendously. To hear how much some of the patients had already improved was inspiring. It was interesting (and also heartbreaking) to see mobility issues that came about from a host of such different conditions: freak accident, genetics, and terror. Some causes were unique to a country like Israel, and some were universal. Some prognoses were good, and some were grim. Some of the patients knew what was wrong with them and what work needed to be done, while others were too young or handicapped to understand.
Yet all received treatment from the same therapists in the same room.
It was a great day, and made me very excited about getting further PT experience back in America this summer.