This is how Israelis are saving lives in Turkey

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Thirteen victims of Monday’s deadly earthquake were saved by IDF Search and Rescue and United Hatzalah of Israel as rescue efforts continued in the city of Kahramanmaraş.

Most of the victims were stabilized by United Hatzalah medical personnel within collapsed buildings before they were extracted by IDF rescuers.

“Some of them were very hard to stabilize,” said United Hatzalah’s Linor Attias.

A race against time

The rescuers face a race against time as fears of finding living victims diminishes after a fourth night of low temperatures.

Two boys were saved by the IDF from a building in the morning after signs of life signs had been detected the previous day by a United Hatzalah drone equipped with specialized equipment, according to Attias. She said the boys’ uncle approached the team and hugged them, thanking them for their aid in the rescue.

“This hug was the hope we needed that time is not against us,” she said

Shortly afterward, another man approached and pleaded with them to check his home because he believed he had heard his daughter sobbing, Attias said.

They found the girl in the ruins and managed to stabilize her with an IV and medication, she said. While she was being stabilized, United Hatzalah’s psycho-trauma team spoke to the man, who was manic with grief and calmed him down.

They found the girl in the ruins and managed to stabilize her with an IV and medication. While she was being stabilized, United Hatzalah’s psycho-trauma team calmed and spoke to the man, who was manic with grief.

The man had lost two other daughters and his wife, whose body shielded his third daughter, likely “saving her life,” Attias said. The girl was successfully extracted, she said.

“It’s a combination of feelings of hope and sadness for these people,” Attias said. “It’s going to take a while before the government can handle this apocalyptic situation.

Earlier Thursday morning, a boy was removed by the IDF from a collapsed building in the same city. United Hatzalah and IDF teams had spent all day trying to figure out how they could access those who might be inside. Initial estimates said four to nine people could be trapped.

“We need to know what floor they’re on,” an IDF officer told a Turkish rescue worker on Wednesday. “Next, we need to know what their conditions are.”

The rescuers had learned that the relatively intact building across the street was a mirror of the collapsed site. Speaking with residents of that standing building, they identified where the survivors might be.

The IDF rescuers used an excavator and a Bobcat compact excavator to dig a trench so they could access the wall outside the deeper floors. Then they opened up the wall with jackhammers. Unfortunately, they had to take a different approach when the rubble proved too thick. They then began to enter through gaps between the collapsed floors and dug toward the victims.

Late Wednesday night, IDF reinforcements arrived and began to establish its field hospital in a staging camp outside the ruined city.

This brought to 230 the number of personnel in the medical delegation, including 140 medical professionals. Some are reservists, and some are soldiers in mandatory military service.

“It’s a hospital in every sense but in tents,” said head IDF nurse Demi Zukin.

The almost-finished hospital will have intensive-care beds, an emergency room, surgery wards, imaging departments, a laboratory, dentistry, orthopedics and children’s and women’s wards.

“We don’t know how long we’ll be here, but we’ll be here as long as we’re needed,” Zukin said.

If you would like to donate to United Hatzalah’s ongoing emergency efforts in Turkey go to www.Israelrescue.org/earthquakeresponse