Two Women Rescued From Ruins in Haiti

19 January 2010 , 13:08
The first rescue operation by the IDF delegation in Haiti

IDF rescue teams aid in the surprising rescue operation six days after the earthquake

On Monday night (Jan. 18), the search and rescue teams of the IDF delegation in Haiti helped with the rescue of two female students who had been buried under the ruins of the university in Port-au-Prince. This rescue operation was carried out on the day that the Home Front Command had decided to cease searching for victims, since it was estimated that there would be a zero percent chance of finding survivors.

One of the doctors in the delegation, Lt. Col. Tarif Bader, told Israel Army Radio about the rescue operation which succeeded against all odds. According to him, the team was returning from an unsuccessful rescue mission of a six year old girl among the ruins of the city, when they ran into the rescue teams from Russia and Nicaragua who asked them for their assistance. The Israeli team joined the others and aided with the rescue of the two women who were between 25 and 30 years old.

Lt. Col.Bader, who serves as the head of the pediatrics station in the IDF field hospital in Haiti, says that one of the rescued women was only lightly injured, while the other woman suffered a hip fracture and severe bruising. The first student received medical treatment by the rescue teams on the scene, and the more severely injured woman was transferred to the IDF field hospital.

Since the rescue team did not have a vehicle to evacuate the injured, Maj. Amir Ben-David and Cpt. Shlomi Ben-Yair from the Home Front Command stopped a local vehicle and transferred her to the hospital in it. Lt. Col. Bader concludes that "it's not something you experience every day. You leave for one of the destruction areas in the city and you don't expect to find someone alive, the excitement was great. Now, despite the excitement, we have to continue working".

The local media has reported that eighty percent of the buildings in Port-au-Prince were destroyed by the earthquake. Up to this point, ninety thousand dead victims have been uncovered from the ruins.
source: http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/01/1902.htm