At work in Nepal
Nine senior medical personnel from Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Hospital are playing a crucial role in the IDF’s rescue mission in Nepal.
Israeli doctors deliver a baby in Nepal
Within hours of the earthquake, the delegation which is part of the IDF Medical Mission was dispatched to the disaster zone in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The head of Shaare Zedek, Director-General Jonathan Halevy was invited to join the mission and is supervising a staff of 11 Israeli doctors, a team of nurses and support personnel in the field hospital in Kathmandu.
His deputy, Dr Ofer Merin is an expert in Trauma Medicine. He is serving as the Medical Director of the Field Hospital in Nepal. Dr. Merin is a veteran of IDF medical relief operations, having supervised field hospitals in all the recent overseas disasters as well as the IDF Field Hospital which was established on Israel’s northern border for the treatment of victims of the Syrian civil war.
The field hospital is established immediately adjacent to an existing medical facility in Kathmandu which suffered extensive damage in the quake.
Israel’s field hospital is the largest of its kind in Nepal. It includes operating rooms, fully functioning X-ray facilities and a range of wards. There is also a helipad nearby, enabling injured patients to be flown in from distant locations.
Within minutes of the opening of the field hospital, patients were rushed in for treatment. The hospital is set up to treat over 200 patients per day. Medical personnel are under intense pressure to provide urgent treatment for patients with severe internal injuries, fractures, hypothermia and other multiple complex surgeries.
Australian Friends of Shaare Zedek Medical Centre Chairman Dr Allan Garfield says, “We are so proud that Shaare Zedek has both the expertise and the willingness to provide urgent humanitarian care in this devastating situation.”
“Shaare Zedek is renowned as the Hospital with a Heart. The Shaare Zedek medical team bring unmatched expertise to the rescue mission in Nepal with the combination of their military and medical training.”
And Shaare Zedek is well placed to address the challenges of the crisis in Nepal. As Jerusalem’s largest and most dynamic hospital, Shaare Zedek regularly trains its staff in dealing with large scale crisis intervention and has the knowledge, expertise and commitment to assist in Nepal.
Shaare Zedek is unique as Israel’s fastest growing hospital. Professor Jonathan Halevy is credited with leading the hospital through an extraordinary period of growth and expansion.
With more than 22,000 births last year, Shaare Zedek is the busiest maternity facility in the Western World. Shaare Zedek is set to open its new state of the art Wilf Children’s hospital in coming weeks as part of its continued program of expansion.
Key to the Shaare Zedek success story is its unmatched record as a financially secure and well managed institution. In future years, Shaare Zedek is set to continue to grow exponentially. In a huge endorsement of Shaare Zedek’s pivotal role in the city, Jerusalem’s Municipality recently approved a major development plan which will enable the hospital to effectively triple its current size.
Dr Garfield says, “We wish our Shaare Zedek medical personnel success in their lifesaving humanitarian work and a safe return home when their work is done.”
