Five Sheba Doctors on Humanitarian Mission in Haiti

Five senior members of the Sheba Medical Center staff left Israel this weekend for Haiti, to assist in the international relief and rescue effort.

The Sheba medical personnel now in Haiti are: internist Prof. Eli Schwartz, an expert in exotic and infectious diseases; anesthesiologist Dr. George Kurakin; primary medicine expert Dr. Adar Marom; trauma specialist and epidemiology researcher Dr. Kobi Peleg; and registered nurse Maya Golan.

Members of the Israeli rescue team with a man they freed, Saturday

The five are part of the Israel Defense Forces' 250-person medical rescue team, which landed in Haiti on Friday with a 90-bed field hospital, including a full surgical unit.

Two teams from the IDF canine unit went into action immediately upon arrival, searching for survivors under the rubble, especially at the collapsed UN headquarters and Haitian tax authority building. They were assisted by a religious ZAKA rescue unit. On Saturday, they located and extricated a 58-year old man who had been trapped underneath the rubble for four days.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this morning that "Our medical aid delegation to Haiti expresses the true heritage of the State of Israel and the Jewish People. This act joins similar action we have taken in the past in Mexico, Kenya and Turkey. We may be a small country, but we are a country with a big heart. This is the expression of Jewish ethics and heritage - to help others."

Sheba Medical Center CEO Prof. Zeev Rotstein also commented that Sheba has a long and proud tradition of delivering medical assistance beyond our national boundaries. Sheba doctors have provided international relief and medical training in Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mauritania, Myanmar, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and more. These activities stem from the hospital's commitment for the ailing and needy; from the State of Israel's long-time tradition of contributing to humanitarian relief efforts abroad; and out of an abiding concern for healing and compassion that is ingrained in Jewish history and tradition.