Mustafa Youssef spends the majority of his time in his “other house,” as he refers to it, waiting for an emergency call, which has resulted in his sitting and sleeping in the ambulance becoming almost
permanent.
Mustafa Youssef, 39 years old, is married with four children and works as an ambulance driver for the Iraqi Red Crescent Society’s first responder team, he drives from dawn to dusk, waiting for an emergency call.
Along with other drivers, he acquired ambulance skills by attending regular Iraqi Red Crescent first aid and first responder training courses, allowing him to work as both a driver and a paramedic.
In 2017, he assisted in transporting casualties during the events in Mosul and Salah al-Din, and gained skills in first aid through his field work.
“The drivers of the first responder cars are waiting for any contact, at any time, to rush as quickly as possible to transport the patient and injured from the scene of the accident, and our mission is to preserve life until we reach the nearest hospital or health center,” he says. I deal with each case as if it were the only one deserving of life, and I treat each injured person as if he were a member of my family, and the ambulance serves as my second home.”
“Our cars are equipped with modern devices and integrated equipment, such as splints to repair fractures, straps for the injured, breathing and oxygen devices, and electric shock speaking devices, and the injured are monitored during transport by a team of paramedics,” Mustafa continued.
The first responder cars operate in Anbar, Nineveh, Basra, and Baghdad, and are responsible for the evacuation of patients and injured by a trained and specialized team from the scene of the event to the nearest hospital or health center, with the number of injured people evacuated exceeding (3000) cases in
2021.