Sheba’s gift to world: Doctors without borders

Micka, 23, was the last person rescued from under the rubble of the January 2010 Haiti earthquake and brought to the Israel Defense Forces field hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Though one leg had to be amputated, Micka survived and thrived. Ten years later, she had an emotional reunion in Haiti with her Israeli orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Elhanan Bar-On.

“And just a few weeks ago she sent a picture of her newborn baby girl,” he says.

Micka is one of countless people Bar-On has helped heal in disaster zones. His most recent assignment was on the Greek island of Lesbos, where the World Health Organization asked him to coordinate emergency medical teams after Camp Moria — the largest refugee camp in Europe — was destroyed in September by a fire.

Bar-On, 68, heads the Israel Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response, which he established in 2017 at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan. This year, he won the Yigal Alon Prize for Pioneering Excellence in recognition of his work.

He and his teams have deployed to disaster sites across the globe, including Zambia following a cholera outbreak, Guatemala after a volcano eruption, Mozambique following a cyclone and Samoa last year at the height of a measles epidemic.

In addition to practicing as an orthopedic surgeon for over 20 years, Bar-On was chief of pediatric orthopedics at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva from which he served as head of orthopedics in IDF field hospitals on several missions, including Haiti. 

Because the Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response is situated in the largest medical center in the Mideast, “we have access to almost endless medical resources, staff and technology,” Bar-On said. “We can mobilize teams within eight hours without paralyzing the hospital’s function.”

“Sheba has recognized the importance of global outreach since it was founded in 1948,” he added, offering recent examples: 

•Several teams on an Australian ship providing cataract surgery and other medical services to Papua New Guinea in 2018.

•A team went to Mongolia to do ear-nose-throat surgery.

•A team goes regularly to Nigeria to do cardiac surgery on children with congenital heart defects and “we also train staff there and bring them here to train in Israel.”

•Projects with the Democratic Republic of Congo and with the Dominican Republic.

•A burn team went to Haiti last January.

“Most of our international activities are on hold at the moment because of the paucity of flights and the quarantine issues. I was supposed to go to Uganda recently to teach pediatric orthopedics,” he says.

However, they did go to eastern Jerusalem and Jericho to advise Palestinian medical staff on combating COVID-19 in PA-administered areas and Gaza, and recently held a video meeting with colleagues in Myanmar.

“Because of our expertise in field hospitals, our center was tasked with establishing the first COVID-dedicated facility in Israel in February, at Sheba,” he says.

In September 2019, Sheba hosted a national earthquake drill overseen by Bar-On, Dr. Yitshak Kreiss, director of the Sheba Medical Center, and Maj. General Tamir Yadai of the IDF Homefront Command — the first time a field hospital was erected on a hospital campus, including an ER, triage, surgical theater, lab, and other facilities that could be set up quickly.

Bar-On has treated patients in many countries, but the one that holds the biggest place in his heart is Haiti.

“I have an ongoing love story with Haiti,” he says.

“After serving with the IDF field hospital there, I went back with a Sheba team to establish a rehabilitation center for amputees and I’ve been there a few times.”

In addition to patients like Micka rescued from underneath the rubble, many Haitians suffered burns when the earthquake caused open-flame cooking stoves to overturn.

Earlier this year, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the earthquake, an international team of burn surgeons led by experts from Bar-On’s center and the National Burn Center at Sheba flew to Haiti to set up the first pediatric laser unit to treat disfiguring burn scars in children. When travel restrictions are lifted, another trip will take place to do treatment and staff training.

Bar-On says that in Haiti and other countries, his center always works closely with Israeli aid organizations on the scene, such as IsraAID.

“Israel does have a heart for being active in humanitarian activities, but we’re not the only ones,” he says. “There are many NGOs around the world who drop everything and run to these places to work with victims of mass casualties or with refugees.

“The people you meet — some have been on the ground for years in disaster areas — are doing amazing things. We are just one of them.”