london | Dr. Benny Meilik and his young family had finished their breakfast and were getting ready to explore London. It was the first time they had visited the city together and Bar, 17, and Rony, 12, couldn’t wait to get out and see the sights they’d heard so much about.
In his work as an emergency surgeon and consultant at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Meilik has worked saving lives from terror attacks across Israel – and he wanted some peaceful, reflective time with his wife, Libby, away from the trauma of treating victims of violence.
But the first morning of his trip he found himself dragging victims free from the wreckage of the 8:51 a.m. Piccadilly Line eastbound train and working frantically to save their lives.
The family was staying in the Russell House Hotel, next door to the tube station.
Authorities have identified two Jewish victims of the London terror bombings. Miriam Hyman, 31, is believed to have died in the bus bombing in Tavistock Square. Minutes before the explosion, the freelance photo editor had phoned her father, John, from Kings Cross Station to assure him that she was all right. Susan Levy, 53, a mother of two, was the first fatality named by police. She had been traveling to work from her home in Hertfordshire when a bomb exploded on the packed subway train near Kings Cross Station. Hopes are now fading for Israeli Anat Rosenberg, 39, who was thought to be traveling on the same bus as Hyman. At least 52 people are known to have died in the synchronized attacks, which police believe were carried out by four British-born Muslim suicide bombers.
When the bomb went off in the deep underground tunnel, visitors at the hotel felt the tremor and heard the rumbling bang that signaled London’s worst-ever terrorist attack.
Meilik did not waste time, and his speedy response saved lives.
“I have heard enough explosions to know what they sound like, and when I heard the boom I sprung into action,” he said later.
Leaving his wife and children at the hotel, which was evacuated moments later by police, he dashed outside to find out what had happened.
“People were pointing at the tube station and so I went in,” he said. “There was carnage, smoke everywhere and suddenly paramedics rushed in after me.”
It was the start of a tough morning for the doctor, who has treated more than 100 victims of the conflict in Israel and is used to seeing the sorts of injuries that greeted him on the platforms of Russell Square. According to police, it was the most challenging site of the four bombs attacks. The tunnel was in danger of collapse and is one of the deepest on the network, sitting 150 feet below ground.
The bomb had caught the tube train between King’s Cross and Russell Square, and rescuers had to get 1500 feet along the track to help people. As paramedics brought victims out on to the station platform, Meilik set to work stabilizing them, sifting those who could be helped and those who were clearly beyond his expertise.
“This is as bad as any I have seen. I have a lot of experience in treating blast victims and this bomb was powerful,” Meilik said.
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