DoubleTapper: IDF in Haiti Receives Paise From International Press

IDF in Haiti Receives Paise From International Press

CNN has done a story praising Israel and the IDF for the medical aid they are providing in Haiti following the devastating earthquake.


The medical teams, all members of the Israel Defence Force, flew in all the equipment needed for conducting surgery and they were the only medical team to do so. The other field hospitals contain no more than stretcher beds and medical teams who administer first aid, and they are not prepared for complex surgery. As a result, all of the other medical aid units from other countries that arrived to help are sending patients with life-threatening injuries in need of operation to the Israeli field hospital. Israel's dedicated young men and women are working around the clock to save lives.

ABC praised the Israeli mission which had assisted a birth using a complicated procedure. The network’s reporter, himself a trained doctor, came across a woman on the point of giving birth. First he tried to assist, but when he discovered the baby was turned sideways, he knew there was trouble. This baby had to be born via C-section and even then there were risks. He consulted experts in the U.S. but they wrote back things like “this baby will be IMPOSSIBLE to deliver alive in Haiti.” Then he remembered the Israeli field hospital, called the Israeli consulate in New York and was directed to the IDF camp. The mother’s life, it turns out, was also in extreme danger as she was suffering from pre-eclampsia, the biggest killer of pregnant women in Haiti.

“I understood that they were looking for the Israeli mission,” said Joel Lion, Israeli consulate spokesman. “I called the military attaché in Washington to get the address of the mission… then, via Blackberry, I managed to get the coordinates and direct them there.”

When they arrived at the hospital, the young woman was taken in and eight hours later a healthy baby girl was born.

ABC reported extensively on the story and even sent a letter of thanks to the Israeli representative in New York. “They were very moving moments. It was amazing to be party to saving life and bringing a baby into the world. And most amazing was that it was all directed via a cell phone,” said Lion. “We will pass on the expressions of thanks to the doctors and the wonderful staff at the Israeli field hospital in Haiti.”

There are more than 100 patients awaiting surgery by the skilled hands of IDF doctors and nurses.

Another baby was born in the IDF Field hospital under life-threatening conditions –the mother named him Israel.

From CNN: “At a U.S. medical facility in Port-au-Prince, families were “with their loved ones who they were so excited to see alive, only now to watch them die a slow, painful death from their rotting flesh because the infections are out of control and they need surgery,” Furin said.
“I’ve been here since Thursday. No one except the Israeli hospital has taken any of our patients,” she told CNN’s Elizabeth Cohen.

Cohen visited the Israeli hospital and said it was “like another world,” with imaging equipment and other machinery. “They have actual operating rooms, and it’s just amazing.”

DoubleTapper: IDF in Haiti Receives Paise From International Press