The following is what Ron Krumer heard from Dr. Taras Shirov, one of Hadassah physicians in Haiti:

They arrived 3 days ago and built the field hospital from scratch in a soccer stadium.

Until this morning they did not have any local infrastructure such as running water or washrooms.

They worked for 36 hours non stop, operating on more than 70 people (not counting endless small treatments and procedures they do not have records for). As of this morning they can have showers under running water instead of using 3 large bottles per person for shower.

The numbers of injured and sick people are overwhelming and it seems as if no change is around the corner.

American doctors and nurses help in the Israeli hospital, and an American nurse who has been living in Haiti for years serves as a translator because language differences is a major problem. Imagine a situation where a physician or a nurse tries to take vital signs from patients and cannot communicate with them.

Dr. Shirov is an anesthesiologist and an orthopedic surgeon. He works there as both – running back and forth between the anesthesia machines and the operating table.

Most of the ER work is done at night while operations are performed during the day.

The weather has been favorable so far although its very hot (80's during the day) and humid (80%). The only air conditioner is in the operating room, and they used regular ventilators.

The following story reflects a unique Hadassah contribution to the overall Israeli effort:- They ran out of screws for external reinforcement structures for limb fractures. This screws are screwed into the bone. Reuven Gelfond, the O.R. nurse from Mt. Scopus found a local factory where he had them create screws out of regular bald nails.

You can view the CNN video detailing this crisis by following this link:

CNN.com