Medal of Bravery

• Awarded on: November 25, 2010
• Invested on: February 08, 2011

Marie-Claude Élie, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

On November 8, 2008, Marie-Claude Élie risked her life to bring medical assistance to dozens of people trapped beneath the ruins of a schoolhouse, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Ms. Élie, who was serving in Haiti as a nurse with the Canadian Red Cross, heard sirens from her hotel room and ran to investigate. A three-storey primary school, housing over 200 children, had collapsed and sent a cloud of smoke and dust over the area. Accompanied by some of her colleagues, Ms. Élie reached the school and found that many children and adults were buried under the rubble, crying for help. Amid the general panic, Ms. Élie remained under the unstable structure for over four hours, helping doctors tend to the injured. Debris and rocks kept falling around them as emergency crews tried to locate and assist those trapped in the upper levels of rubble, while Ms. Élie devised a system of tubes to provide water to the people trapped under the wreckage. Due to her courage and determination that day, the lives of many Haitians were saved.