Innovation Blog

A Big Story About  Small Screws:   Israelis in Haiti

By Shlomo Maital

    This is a very big story about some very small screws, and the spirit of improvisation that some say has driven Israeli entrepreneurial success.

     CNN Cable News Network reports that Israel has the most fully-equipped and effective field hospital now operating in Port au Prince, Haita.  The hospital arrived in two El Al planes, shortly after the devastating earthquake,  and was soon fully ready and working. It  includes 200 medical personnel, rescue experts and Home Front officers.   It includes operating rooms, and specialty ‘wards’, including obstetrics (several babies have been delivered),  intensive care, surgery and orthopedics.  The field hospital even has imaging capability, with X-ray machines operating off generators. 

     Yesterday, Israel’s Channel 2 correspondent in Haiti, Ronny Daniel, a veteran military reporter, told the following story:

           Israeli orthopedic surgeons have performed many operations to repair broken bones.  Some of these operations require inserting screws to hold severely broken bones together. The orthopedic surgery team quickly ran out of such screws.

           What can be done?  Wait for a shipment to arrive?   The surgery could not wait; infection resulting from severely-broken bones is life-threatening.

           A team of Israeli rescue experts was dispatched to find orthopedic screws. They found a carpentry shop,  managed to get in,  found some wood screws and brought them back. The screws were sterilized, and the orthopedic surgeons were soon back in business.

A big story about some very small screws.