Dr. Mordechai Gerstein has treated thousands of wounded in Vietnam and the Yom Kippur War • At age 83 he refuses to stop, and continues to work as a specialist in intensive care • And the corona? "I have no fear - the wars have vaccinated me"
People in their ninth decade of life are often deep in retirement life, spending their time in leisure activities and encounters with grandchildren.
The daily routine of Dr. Mordechai Gerstein, 83, on the other hand, includes strenuous work as a specialist in intensive care and the Corona does not stop him either. .
"The truth is that I have no fear of the corona," he tells Israel Today.
Although his peers are considered a risk group and the State of Israel tries in every way to protect them from the deadly virus, despite this, Dr. Gerstein does not hesitate to stand on the war front in Corona, apparently in light of his interesting past,
He was born in the United States to a religious family whose father was a rabbi. He attended Yeshiva University in New York, studied medicine and specialized at Boston University. In 1964 he was drafted into the U.S. Army, which in those years was involved in the bloody war in Vietnam.
"I was then newly married to a little girl," he recalls, "and was sent for a year to Vietnam where I ran the emergency room at the hospital set up in Mash. A few years later a comedy series called 'Mash' was aired about the war, but the reality was less funny. There was a lot of action. ".
He tells in an American accent.
In the emergency room he ran in the large camp, where he served alongside 37,000 other soldiers, many thousands of wounded who came from the front passed under his hands.
"I came across wounded, limb parts, individual limbs. Lots of unpleasant sights. We did the first surgeries of the wounded who were later transferred to a hospital set up on the beach and from there to the Philippines. We were able to save most of the soldiers."
In all the chaos, Gerstein did not forget to preserve the Jewish heritage on which he grew up and was educated, "I was among the 15 Jewish soldiers who served at the base and despite the difficulty and congestion we kept the prayers on Saturday. I worked 14 hours a day but agreed with the hospital director. "The number of hours I was able to devote to Shabbat matters satisfied me greatly and gave me and the rest many strengths."
The situation the young Jew found himself in the heart of Vietnam and the sights he encountered led him to ask himself a simple question, "I did my best with the wounded and the rest was in heaven's hands but I still wondered why God sent me to hell in Vietnam.
"Apart from the help I was able to give to many wounded, part of the answer came a few years later."
In 1972, five years after he was discharged from the army, he immigrated to Israel with his wife and three daughters, "we arrived in Safed and as someone who was already an intern and a cardiologist, I built the wards at Ziv Hospital in the city."
A year later, with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War and when he was already running the emergency room at the hospital, he received the answer to his question as to why he was sent to Vietnam.
"I learned a lot during that time in Vietnam," he says.
Gerstein and his platoon treated about 3,000 IDF soldiers wounded in the fighting on the northern front.
After four years in Safed, he worked for several more years in hospitals in the center, underwent further training in the United States in the 1980s in the field of emergency work and returned to Israel for a decade and a half as a senior in the intensive care unit at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot, until he retired. Very short.
"The day after I was supposed to retire, I started working at Herzliya Medical Center," he says with satisfaction.
Gerstein headed the intensive care unit at the medical center and also served for two different periods as acting director of the entire center.
Today, with three daughters, 15 grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren, he continues to visit the medical center where he has worked for 18 years, even though he is located far from his home in the Galilee settlement of Moreshet.
"During the week my wife and I sleep near the hospital, driving at night and working during the day. On Wednesdays we return for the weekend at home."
Despite his advanced age, he has no intention of ceasing the occupation that has been filling his days for over 60 years, even when the corona is raging outside.
"I really enjoy what I do and where I am and the warm atmosphere in it. I can provide patients with my professional and medical experience and beyond, since I also bring quite a bit of emotion and laughter and try to instill confidence in patients. Beyond that, my background definitely helps me cope. With all sorts of difficult situations and it probably works in the case of the Corona as well. "