Even before the death toll from Hamas’s attack on Gaza-area communities came into focus, it was clear that this was the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history. The Jewish state would clearly need help identifying bodies so they could be given a dignified burial.
And when Dr. Judy Melnick saw that American Healthcare Professionals and Friends for Medicine in Israel (APF) was sponsoring a delegation of doctors to assist in humanitarian aid, the forensic pathologist from Wellington, New Zealand signed up after seeing a notice on social media.
“At the top of the list they were asking for forensic pathologists,” Melnick told the Tazpit Press Service. “I am an American Board Certified Forensic Pathologist but I am Israeli by birth and I am fluent in Hebrew. I figured I could be of some use.”
Melnick, who spent a week voluntarily helping identify bodies brought to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, has already returned to her home in Wellington, New Zealand.
She has done forensic work at some well-known disaster scenes including the World Trade Center and the crash of American Airlines flight 587 in which 260 people were killed when the passenger plane crashed into a New York City residential area in 2001.
“The practice of medicine itself is often detective work: deciphering clues in the symptoms and signs that patients present with, and identifying a likely culprit you can treat,” Melnick explained to TPS. “Forensic pathologists don’t just do autopsies and look at a microscope. They go to death scenes, counsel the families of the deceased, and testify in legal cases. It is a much more diverse and exciting job than what is portrayed on television.”
‘Gurneys Were Lined Up Outdoors’
Melnick and three other doctors from the US were taken to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv, but the center was swamped.
“The building is very old and the facilities are in need of an upgrade to appropriately respond to country’s dead respectfully and quickly, even when there isn’t a war. There were few autopsy rooms and they were poorly ventilated and cramped. There was insufficient refrigerated indoor space for the bodies, so gurneys were lined up outdoors, in the hot sun, waiting to be scanned,” she said.
To streamline the work, bodies were brought to Camp Shura, a military facility near Rehovot. Only bodies that couldn’t easily be identified were taken to Abu Kabir for more in-depth examination.
Melnick worked with three other American pathologists. Another three Swiss pathologists also volunteered, but Melnick didn’t work with them.
“The four of us were split up into two groups – each group had one doctor who could speak and read some Hebrew, which proved helpful in identifying inscriptions on clothing or property and communicating with staff members and volunteers. We were assigned to an autopsy room and went through the body bags that were brought in by ZAKA volunteers,” she said. ZAKA is a volunteer emergency response organization which aids in the identification of victims of terrorism, road accidents and other disasters.
“Each pouch was opened and its contents examined forensically and photographed to reveal any identifying information and also to document traumatic injuries that could be assigned as the cause of death. The remains we examined were the ones that could not be easily identified based on the initial round of inspection in the field, combined with DNA. Most were massively charred, decomposed, or badly traumatized,” Melnick said.
“Even while we were working in central Tel Aviv, sirens rang out overhead intermittently and we had to go to shelters until the ‘all clear’ was sounded,” she noted.
“What moved me the most was that on the day we arrived one of the staff members had just come back from a funeral and was being comforted by another staff member,” Melnick recalled. “This terrorist attack struck at the heart of the Israeli people and every single person I met on this trip knew someone who was injured, dead or kidnapped. In a country of fewer than 10 million people, there are only two degrees of separation for most, so an attack of this magnitude compares to eight times the personal impact of 9/11, if you compared it to the population of the United States.”
Having returned to Wellington, Melnick said she’s still “processing what I experienced.”
Asked how she decompresses from the experience, Melnick said, “Fresh air, walks with my dog, and time spent with friends and family do wonders to restore the soul. I am also grateful that I had some time to visit my family in Modi’in-Reut before I left and see my 90 year-old Aunt Sarah on Shabbat. I also find that it helps me to write down my thoughts to get them ‘out of my head,’ so to speak.”
But even though her forensic tour of duty is finished, Melnick stresses that the humanitarian needs are still urgent.
“There are wonderful organizations, like APF, that will arrange your travel but there is no guarantee of personal safety, because it’s a war zone,” Melnick stressed.
“Those with experience in orthopedic surgery and physical therapy and rehabilitation medicine are needed for the next mission, to help the survivors. To volunteer you can contact APF.”
