As the emergency response shifts from rescue and recovery to rehabilitation in earthquake-devastated Haiti, Israel is at the forefront once again.

Last week, under the auspices of IsraAid, a team of medical experts from ALYN Hospital in Jerusalem specializing in the rehabilitation of amputees arrived in Haiti, along with professionals from the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma and volunteers from Tevel b’Tzedek.

The professionals from ALYN, one of Israel’s premier rehabilitation centers for physically disabled children and adolescents with prosthetics, orthopedic injuries, spinal cord injuries and head traumas, went to Haiti to examine and evaluate the type and number of injuries and amputations, and to assess the abilities of the local medical staff.

Experts believe that record numbers of people may have lost limbs either from injuries sustained from building collapses and falling debris or from life-threatening infections contracted in the days and weeks following the quake.

Dr. Shirley Meyer, Director General of ALYN Hospital, announced that ALYN would be honored to provide rehabilitation for the injured and hands-on-training to potential Haitian therapists in Israel, should a decision be made to bring them.