The IDF saved many people and delivered eight babies during its mission to earthquake-stricken Nepal.
The IDF has completed its humanitarian mission to Nepal on Sunday and shut down its field hospital. The mission to the country, hit last month by a devastating earthquake, consisted of 260 search-and-rescue and medical personnel and 95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies flown in from Israel just days after Nepal experienced its worst tremor in 80 years.
The 60-bed field hospital, which was operational for 11 days, treated 1,600 patients suffering from severe internal injuries, fractures and hypothermia caused by the natural disaster. The medical teams used the flown-in operating rooms, imaging facilities, advanced labs and an intensive care unit to conduct 85 life-saving surgeries. They also delivered eight babies, six through Caesarean section and two natural births.
In order to aid restoration, Israeli engineers from the IDF’s Home Front Command surveyed 332 public buildings and assessed structural stability.
Focusing on long-term trauma, mental health officers led workshops for educational staff and the general population.
At a ceremony marking the closure of the emergency aid facility, Nepalese Urban Development Minister Narayan Khadka said: “Let me express our sincere gratitude to the government of Israel and to the people of Israel for helping us in times of very critical hours for Nepal.”
The Nepalese Army Chief Medical Surgeon commended the IDF soldiers for the lives they have saved, saying most of the casualties in the IDF’s hospital vicinity were evacuated to their hospital.
“The IDF is committed, as it has been in the past, to rapidly respond in the face of natural disaster worldwide,” it said in a statement.
The quake has affected eight million of Nepal’s 28 million people and claimed some 7,900 lives. The Nepalese government said the cost of the first phase of reconstruction would be $2 billion, and Israel announced that it will “adopt” a Nepalese town and assist with its rehabilitation.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel
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