Feature Stories Latest

Israeli Field Hospital in Philippines Treating Hundreds of Patients a Day

By Linda Gradstein/The Media Line

Israeli doctors hold baby Israel in the Philippines shortly after his birth.

Israeli doctors hold baby Israel in the Philippines shortly after his birth.

The Israeli team of 125 doctors, nurses, and logistics officers arrived on the Philippine island of Cebu on Thursday night, Nov. 14 and started treating victims of Typhoon Haiyan the following day. The swift and expert way in which the Israeli team set up shop was so impressive, that NBC Today Show medical correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman made the Israeli effort the focus of one of her onsite reports in the days following the disaster.

The Israeli team is one of the 11 foreign medical groups that have set up operations in the typhoon-hit regions.

“The field hospital capacity that the Israelis can mobilize is top class, and we have seen it very, very effectively in many other crises as well,” said John Ging, a top U.N. humanitarian official, in New York.

Beyond seeing some 300 patients each day and helping to bring more than a dozen babies into the world, the medical professionals are operating together with local doctors in an attempt to share Israel’s specialized medical knowledge.

For example, at 4 a.m. Saturday night, a man showed up at the field hospital with a stab wound in his chest. The circumstances behind the injury are not clear.

“He needed a chest drain, which is a simple treatment but they simply don’t do it in the local hospitals here,” Lieut. Col. Ofer Merin, the medical manager of the IDF hospital told The Media Line in a conference call from the Philippines. “I’m not sure what would have happened to him if we weren’t here, but now there’s no question that he’s going to make it. Sometimes it’s a question of being in the right place at the right time.”

Merin is the deputy director of Shaare Zedek medical center in Jerusalem and a cardiac surgeon. He said the hospital is set up to do surgery and that, as much as possible, doctors will do surgery together with a Filipino colleague, in hopes of leaving knowledge behind once they leave. So far, the team has helped 14 women give birth, including the first baby believed to be born since the disaster, named Israel.

“We came with five obstetricians, incubators and other equipment. We will leave as much of the equipment here as we can,” Lieut. Libby Weiss of the IDF Spokesman’s Unit said.

Merin, the medical manager, said the team has 22 physicians and 15 nurses as well as dozens of logistical support personnel.

Merin said they set up camp in a small local hospital that had been damaged but not completely destroyed. He said the two or three doctors on each shift are responsible for providing medical care for 250,000 people.

“Some of them are directly from the typhoon and many of them are relatively minor injuries but if they are not treated they could become infected and the patients could die,” Merin explained. “We are also seeing chronic illness that had been under control but are now getting worse because of the lack of water and medicine. In some cases we are also seeing people who have serious illnesses like advanced cancer and had not received medical treatment.”

Israel has considerable experience with such disasters and maintains a special army unit that is prepared to deploy with minimal notice as they did to great acclaim in Haiti in 2010 and in Japan in 2011.

“We bring everything we need with us including food, medical supplies, generators and even gas for our cars,” Merin said. “In Haiti, nobody could move around because there was no gasoline for their cars. We brought it with us so we could move.”

He said word that the Israelis had arrived in Cebu spread quickly, with lines of would-be patients seeking treatment already forming by 5 a.m. Merin said officials have not yet determined how long the Israeli contingent will stay, but in past situations, it remained for two weeks. He estimates it will be about the same this time.

Closely following the news from the Philippines are the 30,000 Filipinos who are working as caregivers in Israel. Several Filipinos have organized a drive to collect money, clothing, and school supplies to send to the Philippines. Esti Tuazan, 34, who has been working as a caregiver for an elderly man in Jerusalem for the past eight years is spearheading the collection efforts.

“I’m from the north of the country and the area that was hit was the south,” Tuazan told The Media Line outside the church. “But we have a lot of friends who have not heard from their relatives since the disaster. The phone lines are down and we can’t get through by Skype either. People are really worried.”

One of Israel’s cellular providers offered free calls to the Philippines for three days after the disaster, but most people were unable to get through.

Comments? email cindym@jewishledger.com.

SHARE
RELATED POSTS
Caroline Glick to speak in Bridgeport
Defendants guilty of Claims Conference fraud
Ben Cooper inducted into the CT Veterans Hall of Fame

Leave Your Reply