When disaster strikes anywhere in the world the USA and our Israeli friends rush to help, where are the Muslims? When disaster strikes anywhere in the world the USA and our Israeli friends rush to help, where are the Muslims?

Israel sends aid to Hurricane Sandy victims

From Israel News Agency:

Israel Flying Aid, the Israeli global humanitarian organization which was first to land in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, has been distributing large supplies of gas to hospitals, food, batteries and generators to Hurricane Sandy victims.

"We have many years of disaster relief experience," said Israel Flying Aid North American Operations Manager Moti Kahana.

"Israel Flying Aid, in having Israelis on the ground here in New York and New Jersey, have made Israel the only foreign nation to provide humanitarian assistance to the US during this disaster. We are working in coordination with FEMA, local police, the American Red Cross and Jewish communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut."

Kahana said that most of the efforts had been donated by Israelis living in the US and this enabled gas to be distributed to hospitals in New York and New Jersey.

Joel Leyden, an Israel Flying Aid Operations Specialist who was with the IFA in Haiti, has been working with the Greater Hartford Jewish Community to distribute both food and generators on Long Island.

"We had a convoy of food and generators move out of the Greater Hartford area early yesterday morning," said Leyden.

"The food had been donated by Panera Bread and Dunkin Donuts in the Hartford, Manchester Connecticut area. This food was distributed to hurricane victims on the south shore of Long Island, the Nassau County Police, the Freeport Fire Department and the Red Cross Shelter which is set up at Nassau Community College."

Leyden said that when they spotted hundreds of people lined up at gas stations to pour gas into their containers, they would get out of their cars and feed these people as they waited. The donuts and bread created smiles and positive moods which replaced the trauma of suffering in the dark and cold, he said.

"We are so very proud to see you, to welcome you to New York," said Dr. Jason Mallin, who normally practices neurology at North Shore University Hospital but was now volunteering with the Nassau County Department of Health. "We read about Israel and the great work you did in Haiti. We have thousands here that need you. It's awesome that you are here!"

Michael Duarte, a Red Cross volunteer from California who was supervising the Long Island shelter, hugged the Israel Flying Aid team as they arrived.

"We had some bad press as a result of misunderstandings," said Duarte. People in Staten Island, New York were looking for us but due to a New York State law, we could not start operations until after three days. We are now operating at full capacity throughout New York City and this Red Cross shelter at Nassau Community College with over 900 clients. These people have lost their homes. Lost everything. We are here for them and so very pleased to receive your good help."

Duarte, who hadn't slept in three days, had coordinated a first class shelter and his staff could not have been more professional. Sleeping cots, Red Cross blankets, a cafeteria and even a play area for children had been carefully put into place. The fresh food from Israel Flying Aid was served as part of the dinner that evening.

US & Israeli Forces Hold Joint Emergency Rescue Drill

Countless rescue and humanitarian aid missions in disaster regions all over the world have made the IDF experts in emergency relief. On May 15th, 2012 Israeli and US forces held a joint emergency rescue drill. Together, they trained how to extract injured victims from a collapsed building, to clear paths through debris and to navigate in the chaos that is left by a natural disaster. The IDF plans to hold similar drills each year with teams of the US Armed Forces, in order to pass on their knowledge and prepare for future disasters.

IDF Aid Missions Save Thousands Around the World

Over the last 26 years, Israel has sent out 15 aid missions to countries struck by natural disasters. Immediately upon arriving to these countries IDF doctors set up field hospitals. Overall, medical care was given to more than 2,300 people in afflicted areas, and 220 were saved from certain death.

Kenya to copy Israeli urgent care model, brainchild of Dr. David Appelbaum z'l

The African country will implement the Terem clinics' remote consultation technologies to treat patients who don't require a hospital visit.

Remote consultation saves on costly ER visits.

The Kenyan Health Ministry has decided to adopt the Jerusalem-based model of Terem independent emergency medical centers and set up a similar chain of clinics of its own, a move that will likely transform the African country's health-care system.
"The Kenyans are very dynamic people who are trying really hard to have a successful, democratic, prosperous society," says Terem's assistant medical director Dr. Nahum Kovalski.
Earlier this year, the Kenyan Health Ministry's director-general came to Jerusalem to see the clinics in action. "They want to set up close to 50 community-based emergency care clinics, each servicing a few hundred thousand people in surrounding communities," Kovalski tells ISRAEL21c.
"This is a huge project -- reshaping a health system for a country of 35 million people."
Terem operates five urgent care centers in the Jerusalem area, with more than 250,000 patient visits a year. Only seven percent of them get referred to hospitals. Israeli Health Ministry statistics show that per capita, 30 to 50 percent fewer patients turn up at hospital ERs in areas also served by Terem, meaning that the system significantly reduces stress on emergency rooms.
"A simple ankle fracture doesn't need to go through a hospital. We X-ray the injury, then treat it," he says. "Most fractures can be cast on the spot. Then we send them home. The patient pays a maximum of NIS 86 [about $22]." The primary care physician provides follow-up care.
Real-time remote consultations
What particularly interested the Kenyans, says Kovalski, is Terem's use of the latest medical and communication technologies.

Kenya will set up clinics similar to Israel’s Terem network.

"Access to remote consultation tools is key. We have the ability in real time to review material together. Say a doctor wants a second opinion on an X-ray: It can be sent anywhere, via mobile phone or computer interface. We were one of the first groups in the world to use consultations via mobile phones in a real-time environment."
Inaugurated in 1989, Terem was the brainchild of Dr. David Appelbaum, a Detroit-born rabbi and specialist in internal and emergency medicine, head of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, who was tragically killed in a 2003 terrorist bombing in Jerusalem. Today the company employs more than 200 people.
Kovalski, who headed teams of Terem physicians on study tours of Kenya, earned a computer science degree at McGill University in Canada before studying medicine.
"You have to communicate with local doctors and custom-design each system for its market," he says, noting that most households in Kenya have mobile phones and Internet speed there is improving.
"We are doctors who understand technology, not just technologists who understand medicine. We understand the medical needs and can customize the solutions.
"As long as you have Internet, you can have real-time streaming of information. By using portable ultrasound devices, we can revolutionize health care. We're going to see a lot more use of ultrasound in the future -- I've heard it said that ultrasound is the stethoscope of the 21st century."
Proximity will save lives
Another major advantage of the planned clinics is their accessibility. Kovalski points out that the primary killers of children in the Third World are dehydration and pneumonia -- "simple" diseases, he calls them. "If you can get medical care closer to communities, instead of having them walk another day to a hospital, it will save lives." The clinics also will offer community health education.
"At this point we have a complete package. Oracle is providing the infrastructure, including computers, servers, Internet and software support."
The Medical Consultancy and Construction Group (http://www.mccgrouplondon.com), which Kovalski says "builds field hospitals like Lego," is responsible for linking the components.
"We'll be doing the training, and will bring specialist teams to develop customized software for their problems," he says. "We have a large number of well-trained, dynamic doctors who want to be part of this project."
The World Bank is expected to provide funding for the project.
Kovalski is confident that this is the right time to enact changes in approaches to medical care.
"It's almost a perfect storm. As cell phone technologies come of age, this combination of medical knowledge as a package is pretty unique. We've already been approached by other African countries. Once it's working in Kenya, it'll take off."

Shaare Zedek Physicians Head-Up Israeli Humanitarian Mission in Uzbekistan

Over the past several weeks, two senior eye doctors from the Department of Ophthalmology at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center have been operating a special “eye camp” in Uzbekistan. Organized in coordination with the Embassy of Israel in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, the project was an initiative of Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation. Dr. Yaakov Rozenman, Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at Shaare Zedek was joined by Dr. Amos Mazover, a senior physician from the Department. 

Over the course of their time in Uzbekistan, the doctors travelled from the capital, Tashkent, to a more remote location in the city of Ugrench. According to the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during the visit the team examined hundreds of patients and delivered presentations and lectures designed to help train the local Uzbek doctors. The doctors even performed complex surgical procedures aimed at alleviating the effects for patients suffering from cataracts and glaucoma. 

All the necessary equipment and medications used by the Jerusalem-based doctors for their work in Uzbekistan had been brought from Israel. Local Uzbek doctors were taught newly developed methods for eye-care, including approaches that were designed and manufactured in Israel.

This mission reflects the latest in a series of humanitarian efforts on the part of Shaare Zedek physicians around the globe. Most notably, senior Shaare Zedek medical personnel were dispatched as part of relief efforts in the wake of devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

“Shaare Zedek is increasingly being recognized as a provider of top-tier medicine around the world and we welcome initiatives such as these which enable our hospital to serve as a source of pride for the people and State of Israel,” said Uri Schwarz, Director of International Operations at Shaare Zedek.

Gaza-Bound Ships Pose Danger to Israeli Civilians

In order to protect Israeli civilians from attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas, the IDF lawfully enforces a naval blockade on the Gaza Strip. Given previous attempts by the terrorist organization in smuggling weapons via land and sea and the inherent difficulties in conducting inspections at sea, it is critical that Israeli forces inspect all goods and material marked for Gaza prior to their transfer into the Strip.

IDF Aid Delegation to Japan Returns Home

The IDF Aid Delegation to Japan has completed its mission will be returning to Israel. The members of the delegation are returning after providing medical care to the residents of Minamisanriku (in the Miyagi Prefecture) and its vicinity over the past two weeks. The delegation is set to land in Nevatim Israel Air Force Base tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

In a concluding ceremony held Sunday night, the delegation was praised for the assistance provided, and was bid farewell by the Minamisanriku community in a ceremony. During the ceremony, the key to the medical clinic was handed over to a staff of Japanese doctors and the delegation formally marched from the clinic to the area in which injured individuals are received.  The mayor of Minamisanriku–the first patient of the IDF medical clinic–was present as well as the Israeli Consulate of Japan, Mr. Yaakov Rahami, the Commander of the IDF Delegation, Brig. Gen. Shalom Ben-Arieh, the Commander of the Medical Delegation, Lt. Col. Dr. Ofir Cohen Marom.

The majority of the medical equipment taken to Japan by the IDF, including x-ray machinery and lab equipment, will remain in Japan in order to benefit the physicians and local authorities providing care to the community of Minamisanriku and its vicinity.
The mayor of the neighboring town of Kurihara who was also present at the ceremony, Mr. Isamu Sato, gave a heartfelt speech in which he thanked the Israeli team for leaving a majority of the medical equipment brought from Israel behind:

The clinic you left behind will be a cornerstone in the restoration of our city which suffered a major disaster. I have no doubt that your important contribution in restoring the area and the generous treatment you provided to our people will be a vital donation and a milestone in the relations between Israel and Japan.

The IDF Aid Delegation departed for the disaster-struck zone two weeks ago, and included a team of medical specialists from the Medical Corps, Home Front Command Search and Rescue experts, as well as logistics and communications personnel.

MASHAV helps treat newborns in Ghana

Medical Aid Delegation Departs for Disaster Zone in Japan

YNET: IDF mission plans Japanese-style Seder Erecting an Eruv on ruins of Tsunami-hit city, driving eight hours to get challah for Shabbat, while helping in IDF clinic and providing spiritual support – all in a day's work for Lieutenant Tzvi Yehuda Mansbach

When Tzvi Yehuda Mansbach took his officers course and became an Israel Defense Forces rabbi, he never imagined that one day he would be providing religious services for dozens of soldiers at the ends of the earth. But then the earth shook and Mansbach, the Home Front Command's Central District rabbi left his office in Zrifin and got on a plane – destination: Japan.
Early last week he arrived in the city of Minamisanriku with the IDF's aid delegationand since then he's busy dealing with issues like kashruth, prayers, tefilin, Shabbat and Passover.

Talking to Ynet from the ruins of the Miyagi District city just before his first Shabbat with the delegation, Lieutenant Rabbi Mansbach first offers words of calming assurance: "The locals won't feel any difference between our activities on Shabbat and during the week."

According to Mansbach, the Halacha allows the Israeli forces to break the Shabbat laws in order to save lives – even if those involved aren't Jewish and from that perspective, the IDF is in operational activity mode just as if the soldiers were in Israel carrying out operational activities.

Officer, rabbi, medic - Rabbi Mansbach (Photo: IDF Spokesman)

"Of course you break the Shabbat laws to save non-Jews", he goes on to quote the Halacha which states that in order to keep the peace – the laws can be broken to save lives. "This is for the benefit of strengthening relations with Japan, participating with them in their time of need and showing solidarity with the Japanese people."

The rabbi says that you can't but be astonished at the scope and power of the disaster – "a whole city was just erased, there aren't even ruins" – yet even when chaos reigns, he doesn't ignore the need for an 'Eruv' (enables the carrying of objects out of doors on the Jewish Sabbath). Last Wednesday Mansbach was hard at work constructing the partitions, poles and lengths of string that would allow the Israeli team to carry objects throughout the area during Shabbat.

'Mission comes first'

He then had an eight hour trip to look forward to – to the closest kosher bakery (and back) to buy challah for Shabbat. So what did the team have to look forward to for Shabbat? The 60 delegation members, half of which were medical teams, were told where they could carry objects and equipment, supplied with a special Shabbat meal and allocated time to get ready for the holy day.

The rabbi from Home Front Command never forgets that the mission which took them to the Japanese city is the most important thing and so there will be no adherence to IDF 'Shabbat proceedings' that are usually implemented in IDF courses and training.

Mansbach shows true esprit de corps towards his 'place of origin' stating: "The IDF rabbinate does, as its wont, everything – at any time, in every place. The mission comes first, and the mission is above everything."

True to the new path being set by IDF rabbis, the role he took upon himself doesn't end with offering limited religious services to the 10 religious members of the delegation but also encompasses providing spiritual support to the delegation members – religious and secular in the complex reality they are required to work in.

Yet it isn't just the Israeli delegation that the IDF rabbinate representative has been made responsible for – he is also taking the distressed local community under his wing. Since the aid mission hasn't been given a time limit, it has made arrangements for a lengthy stay in Japan and brought 'Seder kits' for each soldier.

The IDF also took Tokyo's Jewish community, who will most likely find it hard to provide themselves with matzos, wine and Passover Haggadahs for the holiday, into consideration and loaded the plane with additional kits – for the locals.

Amazing setup

"It is a great privilege to be on the first aid delegation in the world to fly into Japan" Lieutenant Mansbach concluded as he praised his friends" "If we were in Israel we would need at least 200 people for what just 60 are doing here. The setup is amazing."

To his concerned friends and family he sent a calming message: "We are over 62 miles away from the nuclear plants. We have a radiation safety expert on the team and the monitoring results are not very different from those we get in Israel."

The clinic established by the Israeli team includes x-ray facilities, a lab, pharmacy and intensive care unit as well as children's clinics, surgery, orthopedics, obstetrics, gynecology, nose ear and throat specialists and ophthalmology departments.

Helping Japan: IDF dispatches docs, U.S. Jews raise $2 million and counting

SAN FRANCISCO (JTA) -- “Another day here in this devastated village,” Dr. Ofer Merin writes from the Israeli-run emergency field hospital where he is working in tsunami-wracked Japan.

Merin, deputy director-general of Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, is the head of surgical operations at the field hospital set up last week by the Israel Defense Forces in Minamisanriku, a town in the Miyagi Prefecture. Half of the town’s 17,000 residents were killed by the tsunami that followed the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake on March 11.

The IDF flew in an aid delegation of 50 officers and soldiers, including medical personnel, civilian aid workers and logistics experts, as well as a team from the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, and immediately got to work helping victims in this hard-hit area where thousands of people are still missing or homeless. (Follow the delegation’s work on Twitter.)

“We are seeing more and more patients,” Merin reports on the blog he is maintaining to chronicle Israeli medical efforts in Minamisanriku. “Physicians from all around are coming with their patients for consults with our specialists, for blood tests and X-rays. An elderly lady walked a long distance to reach us. These are facilities they simply don’t have."

While Israelis provide medical help on the ground in Japan, American Jewish organizations have raised millions of dollars for the ravaged island nation. By April 1, the groups had brought in more than $2 million for Japan relief.

The Jewish federation system collectively has raised nearly $1 million for emergency aid -- about $187,000 from the Jewish Federations of North America umbrella organization and some $680,000 from individual federations. The federations in Chicago and New York each raised more than $125,000; Toronto brought in more than $100,000.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, whose nonsectarian disaster relief programs constitute the primary overseas arm of federation efforts, has raised $1.4 million for Japan relief. The money is being used for equipment and medications at the IDF field hospital, as well as other essential services provided by agencies including the International Rescue Committee, which is sending food, fuel and other emergency supplies to evacuation centers; JEN, a Japanese nongovernmental organization; UNICEF, which is handling children’s needs; and Chabad, which is providing food, water bottles and baked goods in Sendai.

On his blog, Merin reported that the Japanese people are reticent about being treated by foreign doctors, but that victims started pouring after the town’s mayor showed up as the clinic’s first patient.

The mayor, who suffered chest injuries from the tsunami, was examined by Dr. Ofir Cohen-Marom, commander of the IDF medical delegation.

Merin said that daily aftershocks from the quake continue to rock the area, “but like everything in life, you almost get used to them.” The hospital was established near the coastline but in an elevated area, he explains, so “if G-d forbid another tsunami will occur, it will not reach us.”

The IDF’s Home Front Command and Medical Corps, often the first to send aid delegations to disaster areas around the world, have filled key roles in more than 20 international aid efforts. They include medical care and search-and-rescue teams sent to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake; New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in August 2005; and Southeast Asia following the December 2005 tsunami.

IDF Team Treats 11-Month-Old Baby Left Homeless By Tsunami

YNET: Ignoring Israel’s goodness Op-ed: Israel’s amazing altruism largely ignored by media as it doesn’t fit with Zionist stereotypes

World Ignores Israel’s Global Humanitarian Missions

Laura: Islam is destroying and killing around the world while the Jews and Israel heal the world. This is the fundamental difference between our Judeo-Christian civilization and our jihadist enemies. That western liberals take the side of Israel’s enemies is nothing short of depraved. A hostile world refuses to give credit to Israel for its global humanitarian missions while continually falsely accusing it of atrocities.

Israel was the first country in the world to send aid to Haiti after the earthquake. An impressive mass of goods, people and emergency facilities was sent to the Caribbean island after the natural disaster. It happened also with the tsunami in Asia, when Israel was among the most generous countries. And now again, when disaster struck in Japan, Israel was the first to dispatch a field hospital to assist in the recovery effort.

However, Israel’s amazing altruism never had its legitimate space in the global media, because this radical goodness doesn’t fit in with the Zionist stereotype of the colonialist, fascist and apartheid occupier.

In Haiti, an IDF team worked to identify the victims. After the 9/11 attacks, Israeli pathologists helped their fellow Americans at Ground Zero. In 1979, Israel sent a delegation of medical staff to provide medical relief to thousands of displaced people in Cambodia following the downfall of genocidal communist Pol Pot. The Israelis also ran a pediatric field hospital in Rwanda during the Tutsi genocide, assisted the Albanians during the Kosovo war and helped Turkey following the 1999 earthquake.

There is an untold, sad reason for Israel’s ability to offer such help. For the Jewish State, terrorism has always been an involuntary master of speed, precision and caring. There is an amazing quantity of research, inventions and new techniques for helping the disabled and the paralyzed return to normal life after terrorist destruction.

During the Second Intifada, Dr. David Applebaum invented a special method to treat wounded people transported to the emergency room. In New York, Dr. Applebaum showed slides illustrating how it is possible to treat “44 injured people in 28 minutes,” as he had done after a terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Then he returned to Israel and took his daughter Nava to Cafe Hillel, the day before her wedding was supposed to take place. Both of them were killed by a suicide bomber. Applebaum’s method has been copied around the world.

Boycotters hurting themselves

Israel’s ignored goodness can be extended to the incredible record of scientific and medical discoveries. Especially now that the “light among nations”, as Israel was called by David Ben Gurion, is boycotted by universities around the world. The Jewish State is one of the world’s leaders in the per capita registration of US patents by its scientists and doctors. One of the most important tumor suppressor genes was cloned in 1983 by scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot (defective copies of this gene are found in more than half of all human cancers.)

A non-invasive diagnostic method for detecting breast and prostate cancer was developed by another Weizmann’s pioneer. Israel developed the early diagnosis of “Mad Cow” bovine disease in Creutzfeldt Jakob genetic disease in humans with a urine test instead of a brain biopsy. The list of miracles includes the identification of the gene that causes muscular dystrophy, a revolutionary supportive metal in a coronary arteries to prevent a heart attack, a vaccine that prevents the development of juvenile diabetes, the discovery of a gene linked to post-traumatic stress disorder, the development of drugs to combat Alzheimer, cancer, Parkinson and multiple sclerosis and the late deciphering of the structure of the ribosome – the cell’s protein factory.

Israel is also the definitive model for finding solutions to major climate challenges, from the fight against desertification to water shortages. The boycotters and the haters of Israel are damaging their own interests, because the Jewish State truly is a light that benefits humanity as a whole.

The first child born after the Haiti earthquake came into the world in the tents of the Israeli army. The mother had no doubts about the child’s name: Israel.

Giulio Meotti, a journalist with Il Foglio, is the author of the book A New Shoah. The Untold Story of Israel’s Victims of Terrorism

Amazing story from Ofer - Japan changes law for Israeli medical delegation

I had an amazing talk this evening with one of our translators.

In her words:  "We are in a small countryside community here. Probably the last time that foreigners were seen here was World War II. According to the Japanese law, non-Japanese cannot treat Japanese people inside Japan. This law was changed last week for the Israeli team. This is the first and only time in history that Japan allowed non-Japanese to have medical delegations".  We see this as a big privilege.

Ofer

Ofer’s latest blog (Friday): www.acsz.org/japan

MARCH 30TH - BLOG FROM DR. OFER MERIN - SHAARE ZEDEK IN JAPAN

Another day here in this devastated village.

Our main goal from the medical perspective is to gain the trust of the Japanese people and physicians.

Israel is the only foreign team on the ground. Generally both at the people level and the municipality, there is restraint from foreigners. Still we are gaining popularity here, which is a bit surprising. We are seeing more and more patients, and it seems we are turning out to be the local referral center. Physicians from all around are coming with their patients for consults with our specialists, for blood tests and x-rays. Pregnant women are coming for ultrasound as well, as this is a service they don’t have.

As always, the personal stories are the interesting ones.  Learning how the patients heard about us … hearing about the elderly lady who walked a long distance to reach us … Gasoline is still a major issue.

We are getting excellent coverage from the media here, so the feeling is that we are on a humanitarian mission while also providing good PR for Israel.

We do have daily earthquakes, but like everything in life, you almost get used to them.  We assembled the hospital close to the shore on one hand but in an elevated area. In this, way if G-d forbid another tsunami will occur, it will not reach us. It is amazing There are houses which are 100 meters above the sea level which were not damaged by the quake, but everything below was destroyed.

On a personal level this is another amazing experience. Although a very different mission than last year in Haiti, it is a challenge to run this clinic efficiently and to be able to merge with such a different culture. I am very satisfied so far with our achievements.

We can all learn a lot from the Japanese about preparedness for these mass casualty events, and this is another personal gain.

Warm regards to all

Ofer

Israeli trauma specialists set up field hospital in Japan

Last week, he was frantically treating victims of a terror bombing in Jerusalem. This week, Dr. Ofer Merin from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem is in Japan, enlisted in humanitarian work to help the civilians there cope with medical emergencies following the massive earthquake of March 11.

Merin is one of a team of 50 Israelis who were dispatched on a humanitarian mission to help treat Japan's casualties in one of the island nation's worst-ever natural disasters.

Merin, the hospital's deputy director general, left for Japan the evening of March 26 to serve on Israel's Homefront Command team, part of the relief that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) committed to provide after the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit Japan's east coast. Israel has sent 18 tons of aid on a 14-hour plane ride and eight-hour bus trip.

As a cardiothoracic surgeon, Merin directs the hospital's disaster preparedness program and its trauma unit. In Japan, he is heading surgical operations in the newly established IDF Field Hospital set up close to the disaster zone in Minami Sanriku in the Miyagi Prefecture. This site is 200 miles north of Tokyo in an area believed to be safe from nuclear radiation.

The field clinic has wards for pediatrics, surgery, maternity and gynecology, ophthalmology and intensive care, as well as a lab and a pharmacy. It is expected to operate for several weeks to alleviate some of the medical emergencies that the Japanese face in this region, which is an hour and a half from the closest hospital.
Experience in Haiti
In 2010 following the Haiti earthquake, Merin played a similar role running a unit of the field hospital there. "The events in Haiti, as well as our extensive experience dealing with mass casualty incidents, have given Israeli medical personnel an important advantage when it comes to setting up these field hospitals and providing comprehensive support and care for those who are desperately in need," Merin said before leaving on the mission.
"We are prepared for a scene in Japan unlike anything we've ever seen before. But we are very confident that our resources and experience will allow us to offer a valuable contribution at this critical time."

 

The IDF field hospital in Japan is being run out of caravans in a parking lot.

He left Jerusalem days after seeing the hospital through its own bout of tragedy. A terrorist bomb was planted near the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem, critically injuring one woman who later died, and severely injuring others.
Uri Schwarz, head of International Operations for Shaare Zedek, tells ISRAEL21c that due to its central location, the medical center receives many of the casualties after all-too-familiar terror attacks in Jerusalem.
"Because of our location, we get the highest number of injured when, God forbid, something goes wrong. Unfortunately, we received more than 20 injured from the last attack. For the good or for the bad, we have got a lot of experience with this and so we knew what to do. And unfortunately we've had the chance to prove ourselves."
Applying Western medicine in Japan
An expert in trauma, Merin is the only Shaare Zedek staff member to travel to Japan in a group that includes 11 physicians, eight nurses and logistics personnel.
Merin writes in a dispatch: "The work will be totally different than Haiti. This village was hit by the tsunami. Half of the 17,000 people died or are missing. The rest turned into refugees, including others from the area."

 

The IDF Homefront Command medical delegation prepares for its mission to Japan.

In addition to treating those injured in the disaster, the team will provide the general population with basic medical care. "A lot of issues arise concerning the difference in culture," Merin writes. "The issue of Western physicians treating [the] Japanese population is not a trivial one. We will have to ... be flexible to the different needs that we will encounter."
Nuclear specialists will be monitoring radiation levels in the vicinity to ensure that the Israeli medical team and its support staff are not in harm's way. "To be honest, I am not worried," Merin concludes.

Shaare Zedek Deputy Director General Departs to Oversee IDF’s Surgical Triage Operations in Tsunami Stricken Zone

On Saturday evening, Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s Deputy Director General, Dr. Ofer Merin, was dispatched to Japan as part of the IDF Homefront Command’s humanitarian relief program in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. 

Dr. Merin, a cardiothoracic surgeon who directs the hospital’s disaster preparedness program and its Trauma services, will serve as the Director of Surgical Operations in an IDF Field Hospital that is scheduled to be set up on-site. He performed a very similar role in Haiti in January of 2010, following the devastating earthquake there.

The IDF team will be directed to a village approximately 250 Kilometers north of Tokyo, which has been identified as having been particularly hard-hit by the tsunami. The zone has been designated as being at significantly lower risk for radiation from the nuclear crisis unfolding in Japan. Dr. Merin confirmed that every precaution is being taken to reduce health risks to IDF relief personnel and that the teams are targeting areas with populations in particular need for immediate medical attention.

“The events in Haiti, as well as our extensive experience dealing with mass casualty incidents, have given Israeli medical personnel an important advantage when it comes to setting up these field hospitals and providing comprehensive support and care for those who are desperately in need, “ Dr. Merin said. “We are prepared for a scene in Japan unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. But we are very confident that our resources and experience will allow us to offer a valuable contribution at this critical time.”

Dr. Merin is leaving Jerusalem only after leading the hospital through two major events in the days prior.

On Wednesday, Shaare Zedek treated 21 victims of the first major terrorist strike to hit Jerusalem in several years. The hospital instituted its disaster management protocols as the major medical facility closest to the scene of the attack. 

Less than a day later, Dr. Merin supervised a major emergency readiness drill in coordination with the IDF Homefront Command. The attack simulated a large-scale incident in the Jerusalem area and the Shaare Zedek teams were credited by the IDF observers who graded the drill has having performed well and demonstrating necessary levels of preparedness.

Professor Jonathan Halevy, Shaare Zedek Medical Center’s Director General. wished Dr. Merin and the team from the IDF the best of success, saying: “We are confident that your role in the relief effort will contribute significantly to helping these stricken areas at this tragic time and it is reflective of the enormous positive role that Israel has to offer the international community.”

IDF's Medical Delegation to Japan Prepares for Departure

ACSZ - SWC presentation to Dr. O.Merin & his response