When the IDF Invaded Kathmandu

More than 120 Israeli doctors and medical workers flew to Nepal to assist in relief efforts, the largest contingent from any single country. A look inside their operation.

THE TOWER MAGAZINE by  Yardena Schwartz                                     June, 2015

...Athough it is composed of tents flown in by military aircraft and sits in an open field, the IDF field hospital has departments like any other. Next to Majhi’s post-op tent (also referred to as the internal medicine department) is the orthopedic tent, and across from that is the operating room. There is also a pediatric wing, an OB/GYN department, an emergency room and triage center, an intensive care unit, an imaging tent, a lab, a dining hall; dozens of small tents where the doctors, nurses, and other IDF personnel sleep; and of course, a synagogue, which is essentially a Torah in a tent. The hospital is also equipped with the sophisticated machines and devices Israeli doctors are accustomed to, many of which are rarely found in Nepali hospitals.

For many of the doctors and nurses here, this is not their first humanitarian mission. Some were part of Israeli relief efforts in Haiti, the Philippines, and Thailand. And while they are in Nepal on behalf of the IDF—either called up for reserve duty or volunteers—many of them are heads of their departments at the biggest hospitals in Israel. Dr. Jonathan Halevy, for example, is head of the internal medicine department at the field hospital, but back home he is Director General of Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem, one of Israel’s best hospitals. Alex Rechin is a neonatal nurse at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. Here, one of his patients is a premature baby born one month early. Weighing just three pounds, the little girl has spent her entire young life in an incubator, being fed by Rechin through tiny tubes inserted into her throat. Her mother, still in shock, hasn’t named her yet....

Read complete story.
http://www.thetower.org/article/when-the-idf-invaded-kathmandu/