22 Apr Heroes Amongst Us: Interview With Tzvi Weill, Flatbush Coordinator at Flatbush Shomrim
FAST FACTS:
Flatbush Shomrim Members: 60
Mission Statement: To work closely with the community and be the eyes and ears of the police department.
Year Flatbush Shomrim began: Flatbush Shomrim was started by Councilman Chaim Deutsch in 2001.
Do all the members live in Flatbush? Yes. We have a couple guys who live in Boro Park and Crown Heights, but work in Flatbush all day long.
Hotline phone number: 718- 338- 9797
What has Flatbush Shomrim been up to since the Covid-19 broke out? In the beginning, after Purim which is an extremely busy time for us, things got extremely quiet once the virus broke out. We’re sixty very capable guys with radios and we felt like there had to be something we could do to help the community. Whether it’s helping Hatzolah or helping with food distribution, which we already do every year around Pesach time, we felt like we have a lot of manpower and we need to do something to help.
Give some statistics. Where do we stand in Flatbush with the Coronavirus? Nothing has changed as far as the virus itself is concerned; it’s like it’s day one. Obviously social distancing has slowed down the effect on new patients, Boruch Hashem. We currently have over 200 oxygen concentrators in use in private homes.
How did you get these ventilators? They’re not ventilators, they’re oxygen concentrators. Basically we were looking at everyone that was being overworked; hospital staff, Hatzolah, etc. Hatzolah can handle plenty, but we were looking for some way to lessen the burden on these guys who are responding and haven’t been home in weeks. We were looking for anything we could do to help them and the community. We spoke to several people in the medical field and they recommended that we purchase oxygen concentrators in the hopes that this will save people from going to the hospital. Again, we’re not medical experts, we’re not playing doctors, we’re just trying to be organized and help. So we decided to go ahead and buy these oxygen concentrators. We initially just bought a few, but we quickly realized that a few weren’t going to help. Unfortunately there’s hundreds of people that can benefit from it, so we decided to go out and buy a few hundred of them. We needed a place to store them, so we’re using one of the shuls here on Bedford Ave. that was accessible to us, Pozna on Avenue I. I asked the Rav for permission and he gladly gave us permission to do whatever we needed to do to help. So we converted the shul into a warehouse with masks, gloves, machines, pulse ox, anything that was needed. But there were a few problems we were dealing with. Who should we give the machines to? We don’t have enough for the whole world, so how do you decide who needs it and who doesn’t? We’re not in the medical field. The only way we are going to deliver these is if the patients’ primary care physician knows the patient and says they need it. We are now the delivery service and we drop it off. Shortly after, we realized these doctors are completely bombarded themselves. They don’t necessarily have the time to check up on patients. So how are we going to make sure these patients don’t have a false sense of security thinking “Oh, I have an oxygen concentrator, hey I can stay home.” We don’t want that responsibility. There are people who this is not good for and they need to go to the hospital. So we came up with a team of doctors, registered nurses, and Physician Assistants that would visit patients every day that had a machine. They reported back to the patient’s primary care physician and it became very helpful. If they went to a place, even after we gave a person a machine, and they thought he had to be in the hospital, they were sent to the hospital. It was done very responsibly. Then we had a completely different situation. People started calling us that a family member was coming home from the hospital, but they wouldn’t let them leave without an oxygen concentrator machine. So hospitals started calling us asking for equipment to be sent home with the patient. We explained to them what we do and more and more people got on board with us. Boruch Hashem, they sent home thirty patients over Yom Tov that were only able to come home because they had the machines we were bringing to their homes. So that’s pretty much what we do. We’re delivering pulse oxes, oxygen concentrators, and helping people who are not deathly ill cope with their breathing problems at home.
How many do you have and how many have you given out so far? We have over 300 oxygen concentrators. Between giving, getting back, and giving out again we’ve given them to about 350 patients.
How are you paying for this? How can someone help out? We started a Chesed fund. People are very willing to help save lives. Boruch Hashem, after the first days of Yom Tov and Chol Hamoed we got back about 15 machines from people who didn’t need them anymore. After the second days we picked up another 25 machines from people who were Boruch Hashem doing better. Obviously some patients end up in the hospital, nothing to do with the machines, just some people get worse. They were monitored and given the information that they needed to go to the hospital. We received other calls regarding people who needed food for Yom Tov, people who needed a wheelchair or a walker, people who just needed a pulse ox, people who wanted to know where to get masks or tests. We received well over 2,000 calls over the 8 days of Yom Tov and we answered each one Halachically.
Are you guys looking after the homebound and old people specifically? As far as these machines are concerned, they’re actually finding us. Their doctors are finding us, they’re loved ones are finding us, and we’re responding.
Flatbush Shomrim typically deals a lot with crime. How has crime been in Flatbush and Midwood since Covid started? Boruch Hashem we’re dealing with one thing and Hashem took away another. Crime is very low, really down. Yes, you have the general car break-ins at night. If you leave your door open, people will go through your car, but anything more than that has been really, really down. That allowed us to have a little more time to say hey, we need to be busy and do something.
How can someone who wants to volunteer or help, do so? Donations are always appreciated. You can call the hotline at 718- 338- 9797 and we will let you know where you can send a check. As far as volunteering to help, we really don’t want to put anyone who isn’t completely trained in that situation right now. The best thing you can do is help your neighbor and if you know of anyone who needs our help, please give them our phone number.
Are you going to be playing in the OBBL this summer? Will there be an OBBL (Orthodox Bungalow Baseball League) this summer? My good friend LOBO, Chaim Silber A’H used to say “You gotta be a mensch on the field and off the field.” We’re off the field now, but this is more on the field than ever. We’re doing what we can; we’ll worry about baseball when we get there.