February 13, 2023 — The official Israeli search and rescue delegation returned to Israel today, after rescuing 19 people from the rubble. The team was led by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and was comprised of IDF and Magen David Adom (MDA) experts experienced in building collapse disasters. The team worked at the invitation of and in cooperation with the Turkish government and the Turkish Red Cross.
A special representative to the Home Front Command for Magen David Adom was Lt. Col. (res.) Felix Lotan, who manages MDA’s disaster response. He summarizes the activities of the last eight days.
“We arrived late at night to the disaster area in Karamanmarsh,” Lotan recalls. “Moments later I was already called to assist the teams of the Home Front Command. We were directed to the ruins of a building where a small child was trapped. It was a very complicated rescue. We broke through the basement into an apartment that was above us, where the boy was located.
“Through the spaces that we created we managed to rescue the child, and after I checked him, I realized he was in excellent medical condition. It was very gratifying, but nothing prepared me for the moment when he ran barefoot into his grandfather’s arms who was waiting for him outside.
“I don’t remember going to sleep at all in the first few days,” he says. “We were in a specific area and the whole team worked on very few hours of sleep and food —not because there was none, but because there was no time to eat and no time to waste.
“We moved from place to place, from building to building, and at one point we began a very long rescue — two people trapped under the ruins of one of the buildings.”
Hours into that complex rescue, Lotan received a message that a woman was identified under the rubble not far away and is in a very complex situation. His assistance was needed immediately.
“The doctor of the rescue unit asked for another senior medical person to help him make decisions and I got there quickly. The leg of the 27-year-old woman was trapped in a complicated way under the rubble and we were debating whether to perform an amputation to rescue her. Time works against us, but after consulting with a rescue officer, we decided not to amputate the leg and continue with a different rescue method.
“After an hour of rescue efforts, we managed to release the leg without amputating it. The woman was in a very narrow and crowded space. It was very difficult to move there, but another hour passed, and we managed to extricate her alive.”
Minutes later, Felix was called back to the first site. “We were in the middle of a situation assessment and suddenly they run to me and tell me that they need my help at the site I just left to perform an assessment and medical treatment because the team detected signs of life.
“I entered the ruins and finally reached a man about 60 years-old who was indeed conscious. I performed medical tests and when I realized it was possible — together with the team — we started to pull him out while he was conscious.”
Over the course of six days, the members of the Israeli delegation, including MDA’s Felix Lotan, managed to rescue 19 people from the ruins, including a father and his children.
But on the seventh day of the mission, the members of the delegation were called to stop the search — the chances of finding survivors were very low.
“We saved a lot of lives, but we would have been happy to save many more. I am returning to Israel and will apply what we learned here to our rescue and treatment preparations, if, God forbid, a disaster of this magnitude happens in the State of Israel.”
The Turkish Red Crescent has mobilized 77 medical units to the region so the IDF field hospital with three MDA paramedics will end its mission by the end of the week. Focus will then be put on providing shelter, food, and medical and psychosocial support to the displaced population.
