A rescue team was sent to the Haiti UN headquarters to assist in rescuing survivors. Patient are being treated at the field hospital.
The Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Friday evening (15 January) and established its operation center in a soccer field near the airport.
On Tuesday night (Jan. 19), an additional team joined the IDF forces operating in Haiti since last week's earthquake, consisting of GOC of the Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, CEO of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Eitan Hai-Am, and the Chief Medical officer, Brig. Gen. Nahman Esh. After landing, the team arrived at the IDF field hospital and was updated on the current situation regarding the treatment of victims.
As of 20 January:
- 367 patients have been cared for in the hospital
- 104 life-saving operations have been performed
- 44 patients are currently hospitalized
- 7 babies have been born in the hospital
Update 18 January: Additional IDF delegation headed by the OC Home Front Command to depart to Haiti tonight
In order to assist in the ongoing relief efforts, an additional IDF aid delegation is scheduled to depart to Haiti overnight. The delegation will be headed by the OC Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan and will also include the Director General of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Eytan Chai-Am and Surgeon General, Brig. Gen., Nachman Ash.
The delegation will deliver relief reinforcements that include medicine and additional equipment. Upon its arrival, the delegation will examine the needs of the IDF medical staff on the scene.
The field hospital established by the IDF is one of the most advanced and includes a medical lab, pharmacy and an x-ray center. Approximately 200 patients were admitted to the hospital thus far, most of them in moderate condition. Furthermore, 39 life-saving surgeries and three births, one of which was the delivery of a 1.8 kilogram premature baby, were carried out.
During the day, nine American volunteers from Los Angeles joined the Israeli delegation in the field hospital in addition to the ongoing cooperation with UN forces and other search and rescue units present in the disaster zone.
Two rescue crews led by the commanders of the Home Front Command Search and Rescue Unit are also operating in the disaster stricken area in effective cooperation with the local residents.
On Monday night (Jan. 18), the search and rescue teams of the IDF delegation in Haiti helped in the rescue of two female students who had been buried under the ruins of the university in Port-au-Prince. One of the doctors in the delegation, Lt. Col. Tarif Bader, related that the team was returning from an unsuccessful rescue mission of a six year old girl when they ran into the rescue teams from Russia and Nicaragua who asked for their assistance. The Israeli team joined them and aided with the rescue of the two women who were between 25 and 30 years old.
Lt. Col. Bader, who serves as the head of the pediatrics station in the IDF field hospital in Haiti, says that one of the rescued women was only lightly injured, while the other woman suffered a hip fracture and severe bruising. The first student received medical treatment by the rescue teams on the scene, and the more severely injured woman was transferred to the IDF field hospital, where she was given life-saving treatment.
Update 19 January
So far, 300 patients have been admitted to the IDF field hospital, over 90 life saving operations were performed and five babies were delivered (two of them premature).
On Tuesday night (Jan. 19), two children were found alive under the ruins of a building, where they had been trapped for almost a week. A joint team of New York fire department and police forces succeeded in rescuing them. The children were transferred to the IDF field hospital in Port-au-Prince. Their condition is defined as stable and they have not suffered serious injuries.
An Israeli police forensics team, coordinated by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assisted the Dutch delegation in identifying the bodies of Dutch casualties.
The IDF delegation's field hospital has incorporated many different medical teams in its staff. Eight Columbian doctors and nurses, ten British surgical teams and nine volunteers from Los Angeles have already joined the IDF's field hospital.
Other Israeli relief operations in Haiti:
The six-man ZAKA delegation (four from Israel and two from Mexico) had arrived in Haiti aboard a Mexican air force Hercules, immediately after completing their work in recovery and identification in the Mexico City helicopter crash.
On arrival, the ZAKA delegation was dispatched to the collapsed 8-story university building where cries could be heard from the trapped students. After 38 hours of work around the clock working with the Mexican military delegation and other Jewish volunteers from Mexico, the ZAKA volunteers succeeded Saturday in pulling eight students alive from the rubble.
Amid the stench and chaos, the ZAKA delegation took time out to recite Shabbat prayers - a surreal sight of ultra-orthodox men wrapped in prayer shawls standing on the collapsed buildings. Many locals sat quietly in the rubble, staring at the men as they prayed facing Jerusalem. At the end of the prayers, they crowded around the delegation and kissed the prayer shawls.
IsraAID medical team treats injured in Port-au-Prince Hospital
Just minutes after landing in the airport in Port-au-Prince the IsraAID team was met by David Darg, Operation Blessing Director in the field, and his staff, and joined with them to unload a planeload of food and medical equipment.
The Israeli medical professionals of IsraAID - F.I.R.S.T., in conjunction with Latet, traveled to the main Port-au-prince Hospital to start treating patients, joining local physicians at the site of the collapsed central hospital, where thousands of wounded have gathered desperate for help.
"The scenes in the hospital were horrible; we saw people everywhere - on the floors in the building and outside; people with amputations and bone-deep wounds, hundreds of them. The size of the catastrophe is unbelievable. All of the injured were treated, until we came, by only one local doctor, and we were the first foreign backup team to operate in the hospital," said Nurse Sheva Cohen from Kibbutz Ein Yahav in the Negev.
When the team arrived at the hospital, they found most of the injured outside the building, lying in beds in the building's garden, probably out of fear of aftershocks and further collapse. The IsraAID team set up treatment rooms in four empty rooms, treating 60 patients with IV and administered medicine. While in the hospital, an infant with 60% burns died, and bodies that had not yet been removed for burial were piled up in back.
In the meantime, the logistical personnel remain in the airport area to set up camp and assist local NGO partners with logistical support for relief items that were continuing to land.
Currently the teams are working around the clock to provide assistance to the injured. In light of the scale of the disaster, IsraAID is currently focused on expanding the scale of its operation, preparing an additional team that would be sent next week.
IsraAID's emergency response in Haiti is supported through the generous donations of UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, American Jewish Committee, Bna'i B'rith International, and The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago in addition to other federations in North America.
Update (Jan 18): The Israeli medical personnel of IsraAID/FIRST have been operating in Port-au-Prince for the last four days, both within the government hospital in the city as well as outside the facility.
The 15 members of the team have been asked by Operation Blessing, its partner on the ground, to operate in a local football stadium where over 2,000 injured people have been gathering who are in need of emergency medical aid. Upon arrival, the team was greeted by thousands of wounded people, and more started to arrive as word spread that a medical team was in place and treating people.
Due to the growing need for assistance, IsraAID/FIRST will be sending an additional team of 12 medical and logistical staff during the coming weekend into the field to increase the ability to respond to the emergency. Medical and other urgent supplies will be purchased in the Dominican Republic and some of the items arriving from the US will be used as well.