"Straight From the Horse's Mouth" - an IDF Soldier's Eyewitness Account*

This was posted on The Muqata, and I am cross-posting it here. It is an account of exactly what the Israelis are doing at their field hospital to help the injured Haitians. Did you know that the Israeli contingent has an ethics committee to evaluate difficult medical procedures and their outcomes? As I've stated and documented in previous posts such as this one, the IDF has one of the highest ethical standards in the world.

(This following was translated by Jameel from the original Hebrew letter sent by the IDF soldier in Haiti to his parents.)

The Delegation to Haiti - Sent by an IDF soldier in Haiti to his parents.

In the lifesaving IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, doctors prevent disabilities. They administer aid to the sick, provide warmth, love, and a human touch. They love the wounded.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents located in the middle of a hell, every complex medical case has an ethics review board.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, the chances of success are debated whether to amputate the entire leg of a child: the chances of a premature infant to survive while on a ventilator in a preemie unit in the tent.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there were no rods left to brace complex fractures. Each rod costs 5000 Euros. Money is not the problem. There simply isn't any. An emergency room nurse had an idea. She went with with Munitions NCO to take similar rods to a local metal shop where they made dozens of new rods. They continue to save lives.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there is a networked computer system for patient management and tracking. X-rays taken in the radiation tent are viewed on a digital viewing system in the orthopedic tent.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation which came from Israel in the Middle East to Haiti, there are American volunteer doctors. They have no other useful installation in which to work in. A doctor and nurse from Germany came. They heard this is best hospital in Haiti. An emergency room team from Colombia arrived with all their equipment and asked if they could set up next to us to be part of our hospital. England is the enlightened country in Europe, the one which has an academic boycott of Israel; twenty British doctors and nurses asked to work with us.

All these people, without exception, stand together at the morning formation at 7 AM in the flag square. The flag of Israel. The flag of a country which was established after the USA was already superpower. After the British left a land under their control. After Colombia was already an established country. After the Holocaust against the Jewish people.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, the Russian delegation asked the Israeli "superpower" for medical equipment.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there are religious ZAKA volunteers. They deal with the severed limbs and bodies of the dead and wounded from Haiti. They do this because of their respect for the dead and their respect for the Haitian Creole speaker, voodoo worshiper in the Caribbean Sea at the edge of the Atlantic.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, doctors ask permission to photograph the Haitian wounds, yet the Haitian patients do not understand why someone would ask such permission of them.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there is a shortage of plaster for casts. An innovative doctor spoke to a Haitian hospital nurse for help, but the hospital could not help. He was sent to an remote neighborhood between the fetid alleys to the Moroccan embassy in Haiti. There, he found a storeroom full of plaster which was brought back to the hospital. The Israeli doctor, by the way, is of Moroccan origin.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there is a delivery room. Babies are born there. Mothers are cared for. Babies that require aid are admitted to the preemie unit.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, the badly wounded patients have plastic surgery operations.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, the law of a patient's rights is observed. His right to privacy is respected. A patient's condition is explained to him in the Creole language via an interpreter.

In the IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents, there are equal rights among all. Equal rights in Haiti, which was a nation of slaves, where even today there exists a great social divide between the rich and the poorest of the world's poor.

The IDF Medical Corps Delegation to Haiti which is housed in tents is the embodiment of ultimate human ethics. Brotherhood at its best. The epitome of the verse from the Biblical portion of Kedoshim, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

(To see the original letter in Hebrew, please go to The Muqata Blog.)

*(nablopomo day#21)