IDF Unveils Carmeli Brigade’s Mobile Field Hospital After First Drill

The IDF disclosed on November 15 that the Carmeli reserve brigade had held its first exercise establishing and operating a mobile field hospital with an operating room. The drill began on Monday evening and lasted more than 24 hours. About 15 soldiers played casualties with different levels of injury, arriving in succession and sometimes almost simultaneously. The brigade is converting its forward resuscitation company into a surgical company, adding emergency operations to initial treatment and stabilization. A reserve combat medic, identified only by the Hebrew initial Zayin, said evacuating casualties from some deeper operating areas can take an hour or an hour and a half. The facility is intended to allow urgent surgery, including for abdominal injuries, before transferring a more stable casualty to a hospital. The tent compound included triage, treatment and observation for lightly wounded casualties, intensive care, an operating room and an area for acute stress reactions. Its medical team included a dedicated surgeon, an experienced operating-room nurse and a nephrology specialist assigned to intensive care. The exercise tested treatment priorities, handoffs of medical information and the support required to set up and run the hospital. “We don’t know in advance what scenarios will happen,” the reserve medic said. Carmeli reservists have served in Gaza and Lebanon and entered operations in Syria in September. The brigade is concluding its seventh wartime reserve rotation. The hospital can be dismantled, moved and rebuilt: the initial plan is to operate close to the border, with any establishment beyond it dependent on operational needs.