Yesterday during my visit to Chicago I had a chance to hear Dr. Ofer Merin, Chief of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Field Hospitals speak about Israel’s rescue and relief mission to aid victims of Haiti’s January 2010 earthquake. His story is not just remarkable because of the short time span in which the IDF was able to come to the aid of Haitians devastated by the massive earthquake that destroyed their country, but the ingenuity and use of hi-tech technology to treat the quake victims.
The IDF Field hospital set up in Haiti was set-up in a matter of 6 hours after the arrival of the team from Israel. The IDF field hospital treated 1,100 victims of the earthquake using the latest medical technology from imaging equipment to having surgical equipment to aid the victims. A total of 30 tons of aid was flown in from Israel to help the Haitian victims. What I found most remarkable was the fact that Israel, a small country which is typically vilified in the media for being supposedly “evil”, was one of the first and best equipped field hospitals to treat Haitian victims of the earthquake.
The following are just three of the video interviews I had with Dr. Merin about is incredible mission in Haiti that saved thousands of lives…
