Published: January 18, 2010
Haitian Baby Delivered in Israeli Field Hospital to be Called Israel
Edited by Alan Gray
On Friday, Israel's IDF emergency aid team arrived in Haiti, with a medical mission and search and rescue teams. A major field hospital was established adjacent to the Port-au-Prince soccer stadium. It is one of the largest medical facilities currently operating in Haiti with a capacity of 500 patients per day.
According to an IDF report:
The IDF search and rescue teams include about 30 operators and dozens of operations personnel including logistics IT, communications and canine units.
Equipment set up in the field hospital includes:
Operating rooms
An intensive care ward
A maternity ward
Pediatrics ward
Incubator units
Pharmacy
X-ray equipment
10 tons of medical equipment
90 beds, 66 intensive care beds and two delivery beds
40 doctors and specialists
20 nurses
several paramedics
over 180 other personnel
The IDF rescued a 52-year old man, Sunday, from the ruins of a government office building after he communicated his location by SMS. The Israeli team worked for six hours before finally freeing him.
Also on Sunday, a baby boy was delivered in the Israeli field hospital. The mother of the child said she would call him Israel.
Israeli emergency response service (ZAKA) volunteers on the ground in Haiti rescued eight students from the rubble of a flattened university building in Port au-Prince, Haiti, on Saturday. A six-man ZAKA team worked with a Mexican military team for 38 hours, to rescue the students.
The team is comprised of observant Jews who continued with their life-saving activities over the Jewish Sabbath because Jewish law instructs that Sabbath can be broken to save a life. "With all the hell going on outside, even when things get bad, Judaism says we must take a deep breath and go on to save more people" said Commander of the ZAKA mission to Haiti Mati Goldstein in an interview with Israeli news outlet YnetNews.
The Israel Forum for International Aid (IsraAid), a coordinating body of Israeli and Jewish NGOs, sent a 15-member civilian response team which includes doctors, nurses, paramedics and logisticians.