Jetrader - September/October 2010 - 36

Ralph Gedeon with Ayal Lindeman, a practical nurse volunteer from New York who has assisted Ralph along his road to recovery.

ISTAT AirLink volunteers during their ﬁrst aid relief ﬂight to Haiti.

Road to Recovery
Earthquake survivor gets new lease on life
By Michael Platt Ralph Gedeon should be an inspiration to all of us. When the earthquake struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, Ralph was a 22-yearold engineering student in class in Port au Prince. As the building shook violently, everyone ran into the hall as the building collapsed. He was pinned under concrete and rubble and could not move his arms or legs. He heard the screams of pain from some of his fellow students until one by one they fell silent. Ralph was pinned under the rubble for more than a day when he faded out of consciousness and dreamed he was on his way to heaven. He remembers calling out to his father to come and clean the rubble off of him so that he could enter heaven. While he was calling out to his father in his dream, his father was actually standing above him in the rubble pile searching desperately for his son. He heard the screams and dug for half a day before going to get some volunteers who together dug for almost an entire day with their hands and whatever hand tools they could ﬁnd until they freed Ralph. Ralph’s father carried him to the General Hospital where they met Ayal Lindeman, a practical nurse volunteer from New York. Ralph’s leg was badly crushed, his kidneys had stopped working, and he was on the verge of death. He needed to have the leg amputated above the knee immediately to have any chance of survival. Life as an amputee in Haiti is so harsh that Ralph decided that he would rather die. Ralph’s father, who dug his son out with his hands, said that he loved his son but would not condemn him to that life and would accept his son’s decision. Ralph was resigned to dying. That’s when Ayal made Ralph a promise that saved his life. He promised Ralph and Ralph’s father that if he went ahead with the amputation, Ayal would bring him to America and get him a new leg. After watching some videos of others walking with prosthetic legs, Ralph agreed to the operation. Ralph’s leg was amputated by a doctor with no experience doing amputations, in a hospital with limited antibiotics, limited anesthesia and unsanitary conditions. Ralph was then taken to the ﬁeld hospital at the airport that had been set up by the University of Miami Medishare program. With raging infections, other internal organ damage and massive blood loss, Ralph was about to die despite having had the amputation. While Ralph was dying at the Medishare hospital, ISTAT had arranged for its ﬁrst aid relief ﬂight to Haiti, and ISTAT members Roland Moore, Vito LaForgia and others were on board to assist with the loading and unloading of medical supplies, food and water. They stopped in at the ﬁeld hospital. Ayal had heard about ISTAT and had been given Roland Moore’s name and cell phone number by someone from the

36 The ofﬁcial publication of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading

Jetrader - September/October 2010

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