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CNN Live Today
An Intimate Look at the Victims of Mideast Terrorism
Aired June 25, 2002 - 14:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of people have died -- Arabs, Jews and Christians -- since the Palestinian uprising against Israel began almost two years ago. Some of the victims died at the hands of suicide bombers, who strike anywhere, anytime.
Well, we continue to look at the victims of terror. And CNN's John Vause introduces us to a man who has seen his share of that horror.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHAI SHAPIRO, PARAMEDIC, MAGEN DAVID ADOM: When we're on the way, and we do know that it is apparent that the (UNINTELLIGIBLE). For me personally, I have a daughter, 3 years old, she comes up to my mind. And I know that I have got to go there as fast as I can, to try maybe to save those babies, mothers, fathers, grandfathers of people. So, you know you've got to hurry.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Shai Shapiro has been a Jerusalem paramedic for the past five years. He stopped counting the number of terrorist attacks he's been to, but guesses it's about 20.
SHAPIRO: That's Jaffa Street, by the way, the main street. The horror street.
VAUSE: A horror street because here there have been six suicide bombings in just over a year and a half. Driving down Jaffa Road in the heart of Jerusalem, he gives a guided tour of grim landmarks -- lives lost, so many hurt.
SHAPIRO: Right here the bus exploded. Two explosions were here. There was an explosion right here, luckily not killing anyone. There was an explosion here as well, killing -- killing two.
Driving on Jaffa Road, it makes you so afraid. You just drive as fact as you can. Just get out from this area. You remember bodies, lots of bodies.
VAUSE: He's typical of paramedics in Israel -- always on call, always the first on the scene.
(on camera): What's the worst thing you've seen? SHAPIRO: I think the worst thing in the terror attacks is to see, from my point of view, to see young babies who have done no harm. If they are alive, shouting, burns all over their body. They are experiencing pain, what is a very big pain. There is no more stronger pain than having burns.
VAUSE: When you see a dead baby who has been killed in one of these suicide bombings...
SHAPIRO: You cry. I cry. That makes me stronger. I'm not ashamed of crying.
VAUSE (voice-over): And it's not just the aftermath of the terrorist attacks they deal with. Often they find themselves in the firing line, attacked by stone throwers in an Arab suburb, or worse. In some cases, the first bomb explosion isn't the last. There can two, sometimes three blasts.
SHAPIRO: The rule, actually, is not go to inside the bus or the zone before policeman is clearing the area for us. But we cannot do it. I cannot see it and watch a young girl or someone shouting for help.
VAUSE: Two of his team members are armed for protection.
(on camera): In fact, here in Israel authorities have given paramedics the option of carrying firearms, and most do. They have bulletproof vests with them at all times. And some of their ambulances have been especially protected with heavy plates of armor.
(voice-over): Rony Berger is a clinical psychologist with Israel's largest trauma center. He says with so much stress on a regular basis, many of those who are first on the scene are suffering burnout.
RONY BERGER, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: From the individual point of view, I think these memories do stay with us for a long time. And it does influence the body, as I said, in other places. That is, they do affect their immune system. And we don't know yet what's the long- term effect in the long run.
Those meetings with inhumanity, with death -- what some people call death (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- do stay with us for a long time.
VAUSE: There is also the impact on the families of emergency workers. Shai is typical of many.
SHAPIRO: When I'm finishing a shift after a terror attack, the first thing is to go home to sleep. I don't want to talk to nobody -- not to my parents, not to my wife, not even to my little baby.
VAUSE: His wife, Annie, is an operating room nurse. When there's an attack, both can be called out. They constantly watch the news, waiting. Their daughter already has a keen sense of what's going on. ANNIE SHAPIRO, WIFE AND OR NURSE: She can feel it, you know. She knows that there is something wrong going on she asked me, "Mom, what is going on? Is there any bombing again?"
S. SHAPIRO: And the one -- the one who is suffering is my daughter. She is 3 years old. And lately, she spends more time with my mother, with her grandparents, than with her father or her mother. It's very hard. It's very hard to work with EMT nowadays.
OK, we are heading towards the area.
VAUSE: Like so many others here, Shai longs for the everyday when his work is routine, when he no longer has to treat the victims, the babies, the innocent lives scarred by the suicide bombers.
John Vause, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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