Dear Friends,

On behalf of myself and the whole AFORAM staff, I want to wish you a happy and healthy Passover or Easter. It is a challenge to live during the time of the coronavirus with many families having to spend the holiday separated from their loved ones. Though I am fortunate that my immediate family lives next door, we will nonetheless be eating in our own homes. My children are determined to keep my husband Sol and me healthy.

I am in constant contact with the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Israel. Rambam’s medical teams are on the frontlines of the battle against coronavirus and the challenges they are confronting are staggering. Ambulances transporting patients suspected of being infected with coronavirus arrive at Rambam’s emergency room doors every hour, 24 hours a day.

Rambam now has two full departments, dedicated exclusively to the care of coronavirus patients. These are isolation facilities separate from the rest of the hospital, with independent air filtration systems and equipped with sophisticated bio-sensor technology, which allows for remote monitoring of patients.

Because of the dramatic increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus in Israel, Rambam personnel are now working on transforming the Fortified Underground Emergency Hospital (Floor -3 of the Rambam parking garage) into an additional facility for the care of coronavirus patients. Because this is a very large area, it will give Rambam the capacity to care for hundreds of severely ill coronavirus patients.

Rambam has a severe shortage of equipment essential for the care of coronavirus patients, including ventilators, monitors, humidifiers, intensive care beds, and portable x-ray machines for patients on respirators.

I hope you will please join Rambam and Israel now in the battle against coronavirus and donate today to help Rambam acquire desperately needed medical equipment. Your generous gift will save lives.

Wishing you and your loved ones the best of health,

Meri Barer
President, Board of Directors
American Friends of Rambam