healing in the wreckage

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Healing in the Wreckage

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Rambam Medical Personnel take part in Medical Delegation to Haiti:
Two days after a disastrous earthquake struck Haiti, an Israeli medical and rescue team comprised of 218 soldiers and 18 civilians took off for the country’s devastated capital, Port au Prince. The delegation’s aim was to save the local population, protect its own members and represent Israel with honor. The delegation achieved those goals, and far more. Today, images of its efficiency, professional care, and great humanity remain with patients and observers the world over.

Rambam Health Care Campus (RHCC) personnel were represented in the effort. Nurses Sergey Altunin and Maxim Berezin took part in the delegation, and have returned to their positions with a sense of sadness tempered by great satisfaction.

The mission started with uncertainty. On the plane to Haiti, members were briefed of the situation awaiting them. Along with so many vital structures, the government was in collapse. “We had no idea what to expect,” says Sergey. “The airport had been destroyed, and we didn’t even know where we’d be landing.” Eventually landing in Port au Prince, the plane was not guided by air controllers, but by two US soldiers on the devastated tarmac.

Upon arrival, the team began building its field hospital on a tennis court. Within eight hours – a third of the time generally required – the hospital was standing, ready to accept patients. “The injured had heard of us by word of mouth and arrived on the backs of others, on animals or improvised stretchers,” says Sergey. Compounding their injuries was the fact that many of the wounded had not had food or water for days.

While Rambam medical personnel are hardly strangers to long hours and hard work, the mission to Haiti represented a whole new set of challenges. Working around the clock, the team treated 1,114 patients in temperatures of over 40 degrees and 100% humidity.

“We are used to trauma, but not to so many patients,” says Sergey. “We worked under great pressure from 4 am to late at night, but we didn’t feel tired. The adrenaline set in and saving lives kept us going.”

The conditions – and the recurring pictures of misery – often made sleep impossible. Even during their breaks, the medical crew found themselves returning to operating areas and patients’ bedsides, offering their assistance.

While the Rambam nurses felt professionally prepared for their mission, they are still reeling from its emotional aftershocks.

For Maxim, the treatment of children, and the many amputations they sustained, was particularly difficult. One experience that refuses to leave Sergey involves a young boy who arrived with second degree burns over 40% of his body. The youngster’s mother had put him on her bicycle and rode several hours to the field hospital, where Sergey treated his infected burns, severe malnutrition and tremendous pain. When the delegation left Haiti, it transferred the boy to US medical personnel. “I think about that kid all the time,” says Sergey.

Despite the pain, the nurses don’t hesitate when asked if they would participate in another such mission. “Yes – tomorrow”, they concur.