Thoughts of a Christian volunteer in Israel.

I have spent a year working as a volunteer in a ward of a Hadassah hospital for cancer patients.

It is place of desperation sometimes for the patients and their anxious families.  And always, a place of dedication, by the hardworking staff.  

Because of the length of stay, a relationship builds between the staff and the patient and the family member who stays with them.  Hope and joy, tears and suffering, are the daily emotions for all.  The highly qualified staff work under stress, but with great compassion. 

I have memories that will stay with me always.  Sad ones, like parents sitting helplessly besides their suffering children as their small bodies battle the cancer and the drugs.  Happy ones like hugs all round and the sense of celebration when someone leaves completely cured. 

Lasting impressions will include meeting various nationalities such as Russian, Ukrainian, Siberian, Bolivian, Cypriot, Nigerian, British, American, Bulgarian, as well as Israeli Jews and Arabs, and Arabs from the Territories.  People from all over the world who have come to Israel to take advantage of its advanced research and treatment.

The media speaks of the ‘Arab Israeli conflict’.  Blame is usually heaped on Israel and among the many biased and out of context accusations, the ugly word – apartheid is one.  Let the accusers come with me and watch the working relationship between Jewish and Arab staff, and the equal treatment given to Arab patients.  Let them observe the loving interaction between Jews and Arabs:  a rabbi speaking words of comfort to a Bedouin  mother; the group of Jewish  young people singing fun Purim songs to Arab children as well as Jewish; a very orthodox man who plays his accordion for the patients telling me with delight how much pleasure it had given the little Arab boy whose illness had caused blindness; Jewish and Arab family members comforting each other.

In my previous volunteer position of several years, I encountered the same equality of care and compassion given to Arabs from Israeli Aid organizations. I also learned about Jewish sponsored programs that encouraged cultural interaction between Jewish and Arab children and young people.  

In this special world of battling the formidable enemy called cancer, I see again the heart and intent of Israel that I have come to appreciate and which most of the world refuses to acknowledge. 

PA Acknowledges Cooperation with Israeli hospital

Official PA daily acknowledges
Israeli hospital's medical care
for Palestinian children and training of doctors

The official PA daily reported on a visit by the PA Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen, to Israel's Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem. The daily noted that 30% of the child patients in Hadassah are Palestinians and that the Israeli hospital is training "60 Palestinian medical interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the [Palestinian] Authority areas to carry out their work." The hospital has a special program to train Palestinian doctors to treat cancer among children, reported the PA daily.

The following is the report:
"[PA] Minister of Health, Hani Abdeen visited the Israeli Hadassah Hospital yesterday [May 5, 2013]. This is the first visit by a Palestinian minister to one of the most important Israeli hospitals, according to the hospital's announcement.

Minister Abdeen who was accompanied by a delegation that included senior officials of the ministry and of the PA, met with the Director of Ein Karem Hadassah Hospital, Yuval Weiss. He [the minister] visited Palestinian patients being treated in the hospital, and he distributed gifts. [Hospital director] Weiss said: 'We relate to patients without regard to nationality and religion. We treat Muslims, Christians, Jews, and other nationalities without bias, and 30% of the patients who are children are Palestinians.'

He went on to say: 'We've begun cooperating with the Palestinians. We now train teams of physicians from the hospital in Beit Jala in the southern West Bank, to treat cancer among children. We have about 60 Palestinian medical interns and specialist physicians who will be returning to the [Palestinian] Authority areas to carry out their work.'"

[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, May 6, 2013]

Christian Convert Attacked with Acid

Last week in Tel Aviv before returning home, I attended a lecture by Pastor Umar Kalinde where he thanked the Israeli people for their support and the doctors in particular for the wonderful treatment he received after being severely burned following an acid attack by Islamists whom objected to his conversion from Islam to Christianity.

In 2011 just after service at a Church in Namasuba, Kampala, unknown attackers threw concentrated acid into the face and back of Pastor Umar Kalinde. An attacker shouted, ‘Pastor, pastor,’ and as Umar turned to look, liquid was thrown in his face as the others poured more liquid on his back and then fled away shouting, ‘Allahu akbar ’” 

Intense pain caused him to lose consciousness as the acid ate away at his flesh. He regained consciousness at the Kampala Hospital to which he had been rushed. Doctors reported that the acid had not only badly damaged his skin and some facial bones, but also blinded one eye. 

Umar was flown from Kampala to Israel for specialized treatment where after two years of multiple operations he has now been to return home

Umar, who had been a sheikh (Islamic teacher) before his conversion to Christianity, said Muslim extremists opposed to his conversion from Islam, and his outspoken opposition of sharia (Islamic law) courts in Uganda,were responsible for the attack.

Umar had a fatwa declared against him demanding his death by area Muslim leaders. 

He was full of praise for the expertise of the Israeli doctors who "brought him back to life".

Yad Sarah lends medical gear to Israelis and tourists

I feel a sense of pride to write the following the story of Yad Sarah as my daughter- in-law is heavily involved as a volunteer in the organisation, acting as manager of a branch of the organisation in the city where she lives. She spends time day, and sometimes night, to ensure the smooth running of the branch.

So many countries have adopted this model which helps to save  vast amounts of money that would otherwise be spent in the healthcare system. My wife and I have had cause to use the services in the past, so we know how effective they are.

Rivka Borochov 12 Sep 2013

Yad Sarah saves Israel an estimated $400 million in medical costs every year

by offering equipment and support to people in their own homes.

The 6,000 people who volunteer for Israel’s charity Yad Sarah are known by people in

their communities as angels, not only because they help save the Israeli economy

an estimated $400 million in medical costs every year, but also because they offer their

time to bring a longer and higher quality of life to people who might otherwise have to

be cared for in hospitals or geriatric centers.

Through its 102 branch offices, Yad Sarah lends out more than 300 different kinds of

medical equipment to Israelis and tourists -- rich or poor, Jewish or Arab.

Yad Sarah also provides 16 support services, from rides for the disabled to the

doctor’s office or just out for a cup of coffee with friends, to toy libraries for parents of

children with special needs.

About 20 percent to 30 percent of the people who turn up at the Jaffa office are from

the Arab community -- Muslims and Christians who come to get wheelchairs,

respirators, crutches, cribs, breast pumps, sleep apnea devices, baby monitors,

hospital beds and all the other items Yad Sarah lends out for up to three months with

nothing more than a small security deposit asked up front.

Countries including Turkey, El Salvador, South Korea, Italy, Jordan, Angola and

South Africa -- and many more -- have adopted the Yad Sarah model in various

forms,

Yad Sarah started out as a small charitable fund in 1976 in the apartment of Uri

Lupolianski, a young teacher who would later become the mayor of Jerusalem. In his

religious community in Jerusalem, he noticed that every winter children would be

taken to hospitals by ambulance and then returned home the next day.

The reason for this burden on the healthcare system, he found, could be fixed with

humidifiers and ventilators to moisten the dry air created by the heating systems in

these old Jerusalem apartments. But the parents in his neighborhood couldn’t afford

the basic equipment to solve the problem every winter.

Creative solutions to improve life quality

Yad Sarah offers a whole range of services: clean linens for the bedridden, security

systems for the lone elderly, meals on wheels, home visits, legal services, and even a

service to help people put their life story into print to share with their family after they

are gone.No other country in the world has this kind of service with everything at one address.

Anat Ben Zaken, who is in charge of the Life Story operation, says that Yad Sarah

volunteers created about 100 Life Story books last year alone. A volunteer who is an

expert in writing will arrange 10 to 15 visits at the home of the elderly or dying person

so their life story can be recorded digitally. Later it is transcribed and edited into a

book to be shared with the family.

This is especially important for Holocaust survivors, adds Feldman, because often

they haven’t told their story to anyone in the family before; the memories were too

painful.

But easing the pain is what Yad Sarah does best –– and it does it with an impressively

low budget.

Most of Yad Sarah’s operational costs come from inside Israel, from donors and also

from clients who donate the security deposit after an item has been returned.

The massive organization – Israel’s largest charity and the world’s largest lender of

medical equipment -- employs only 200 people and relies on its thousands of

volunteer “angels,” mainly pensioners, to staff management and office positions at its branches.

Feldman says Yad Sarah’s annual operating budget is about NIS 80 million, or about

$20 million, and 94 percent of that comes from donations locally and internationally.

They believe in keeping people at home in their own communities as long as possible,

for both humanitarian and economic reasons.

Israel’s secret doctors

 The story of Israeli doctors treating the Syrians either at field hospitals on the border or in Israeli hospitals raises the question of why, if the Syrian crisis is an internal Arab affair, why are we not seeing the Arab countries putting their money where their mouths ofgten are and support the humanitarian efforts on behalf of the injured? As is the case of the Palestinian refugees, the Arab Staters in the region sit back and let the West and the USA provide the vast bulk of the funds for UNWRA.

Below, is the story of the reaiity on the ground

===================================================

Robert Fulford robert.fulford@utoronto.ca

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2013/09/07/robert-fulford-israels-secret-doctors/

To help refugees from the Syrian war, Israeli doctors and aid workers must do their work furtively. When they go into refugee camps in Jordan, they change clothes so that they can fade into the background. They must be smuggled in and out. They don’t tell others where they’re going and when they go home they usually don’t say where they have been. Above all, they don’t want anyone to know the names of their patients.

They move “under the radar,” in the words of a clandestine organization in this field. When they treat Syrians in Israeli hospitals, they make sure no visiting journalist learns details that will identify the patients to authorities back in Syria.

Usually, Israel is glad to announce when it contributes to emergency relief. The case of Syrian aid is different.

Syria does not recognize Israel and forbids its citizens to go there. Israeli doctors are not welcome in Jordan, where their work has been denounced as a violation of Jordanian sovereignty. And Israel is anxious not to be involved in the Syrian civil war. It does nothing, officially, that could make it look like the medical corps of the rebellion.

For Syrians the possibility that their own government will punish them adds to the horror of their situation. This summer, in Nahariya, Israel, near the Golan Heights, scores of patients have been covertly brought across the border from Syria to be treated by Israeli doctors.

For patients’ friends or relatives, Israel becomes a last hope when no Syrian medical help is available. Masad Barhoum, clinical director at Western Galilee Medical Center, recently told an NBC reporter that many patients arrive unconscious. “When they wake up and find that they are in Israel they are anxious and afraid.”

A Syrian woman in the hospital said that she came to Israel because her daughter was hit by a sniper’s bullet. “The hospital in my town was destroyed. They saved her here, but now I am afraid to go back. We will be marked.”

An Israeli organization, iL4Syrians, operates anonymously in Syria and other desperate countries. Providing food and medical supplies for those who need them, it relies on secrecy to protect both its local contacts and its own practitioners. Its web site identifies no directors or staff but carries a defiant slogan: “Nobody asks permission to kill. We do not ask permission to save lives.”

They explain that “We focus on countries that lack diplomatic relations with Israel, transcending differences.” They argue that a respect for the sanctity of human life expresses Jewish tradition and culture. As they see it, this applies to Israel’s toughest and cruelest enemies as well as anyone else.

Since all of these efforts are unofficial and unrecorded, no one can say how many Israelis are involved. I was alerted to this phenomenon by one of the regular letters of Tom Gross, an astute British-born commentator on the Middle East.

Gross has a 15-minute film showing a couple of days spent by an aid group visiting refugees. The refugees don’t expect them to arrive and are surprised when they learn that their benefactors are Israelis. That makes some of them nervous but in the film others say in Arabic “May God bless Israel.”

The team takes along a professional clown to perform for the children while food is being handed out; in one camp, however, the adults briefly riot over limited supplies. A journalist asks one of the aid workers, “Do people call you crazy?” She answers: “Not many people know.”

Information about this work has to be pieced together from fragments of journalism, like a paragraph in an Israeli/Arabic paper: “The Arab countries offer condolences but the best role is provided by the Israelis because they are crossing the border to provide assistance to the refugees, risking their lives without a word of thank you.”

These are dark days for much of the world, dreadfully dark for Syrians. Few can even imagine a solution that does not involve even more tragedy for them. W.H. Auden, in his poem “September 1, 1939” described an even darker time and offered the only advice that made sense to him: “Show an affirming flame.”

As Jews celebrate the start of the new year, it’s worth noting that these Israeli humanitarians have found a way to make their flame burn with a brave affirmation.

Plane turns back to get cancer patient - only in Israel

11-year-old was heading to camp in NY when she was removed from El Al flight after losing passport; document found at last minute

http://www.timesofisrael.com/plane-turns-back-to-pick-up-cancer-patient/

By Lazar Berman August 15, 2013, 

An El Al flight heading from Tel Aviv to New York City returned to its gate to pick up an 11-year old cancer patient who had been taken off the plane when she couldn’t find her passport.

Thirty Israeli children battling cancer were headed to Camp Simcha, a summer camp for young patients in Glen Spey, New York. El Al has partnered with Chai Lifeline, which runs the camp, for the past 20 years to bring such children to the US.

According to Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of Chaiyanu, Chai Lifeline’s Israel branch, the children went through a pre-flight medical examination and took their seats. The senior staff member began collecting passports, and after counting, realized one was missing.

It belonged to 11-year old Inbar Chomsky of Rehovot.

“No one could find Inbar’s passport,” Pinsky wrote in The Yeshiva World News. “Our staff looked high and low, in and under every seat and seat pocket. No passport was found. The flight attendants immediately called the ground crew to help them locate the lost passport. The airport was alerted, and they too searched everywhere from the boarding gate to the El Al aircraft.

“Time was passing fast and the flight needed to depart. Still no passport was found. The ground crew entered the plane and searched frantically for Inbar’s passport. After 25 minutes of pulling apart the aircraft, the crew admitted defeat. El Al had no choice but to tell Inbar that she could not fly. El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar’s passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha.”

“Everyone was in shock, no one knew what to do,” said Elad Maimon, program coordinator of the Israeli branch of Chaiyanu, according to Haaretz. “Taking a little girl off a flight is unheard of, and especially when that girl is sick and has already endured enough hardship. The airline personnel had tears in their eyes. They approached Inbar in the terminal. They bought her water, cried with her.”

The plane almost reached the runway when the call went out that Inbar’s passport had been found in another child’s backpack. The flight attendants immediately told the pilots, who spent the next 15 minutes calling the control tower, ground crew, and El Al’s offices.

The plane sat for a half hour, as the pilots awaited a decision.

Finally, they turned the plane around, and drove back to the terminal to pick up young Inbar.

“Her dream came true!” wrote Pinsky. ”Those of us on the plane experienced something as well. Instead of the hostility that usually greets a plane delay, there were cheers and tears on that El Al plane, flight 007. Passengers and crew shared Inbar’s happiness and excitement.”

“Planes rarely return to the gate after departing,” said El Al in a statement. “The plane was on its way to the runway, when the passport was found on the plane. After consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar. El Al was honored and proud to help Inbar’s dream to go to the camp in the USA come true. We wish Inbar full recovery and health.”

According to its website, Camp Simcha offers young patients aged 5 – 20 a chance to enjoy a normal camp experience and take their minds off their illness. “They can share their hopes, fears and triumphs with friends, or just forget about illness for a while.”

Honduran Child arrives for Heart Treatment

Save a Child's Heart, Israel welcomes a child from Honduras!

This week John Marcus, a 10 year old boy from Honduras arrived with big brown eyes and amazing smile. Marcus lives in Tegucigalpa, the Capital of Honduras, in a small apartment with his mother and 11 year old brother. His heart disease was discovered during pregnancy and since birth he has had several fainting episodes and periods of rapid heartbeats. John and his mother found out about Save a Child’s Heart through the ambassador of Honduras in Israel who is a friend of the family. 

With John's arrival, the number of countries of children treated by SACH increased to 46!

Since the beginning of 2013 SACH has:    

 Treated over 130 children from 14 different countries

 Trained  25 physicians

 Received  news coverage 60 times

 Enjoyed over 100 volunteers helping out at the SACH Children's home and in the Wolfson Medical Center 

 Hosted more than 3000 students and young professionals in the SACH home

See how many children are currently undergoing treatment in Israel. Note the number of Palestinians http://www.saveachildsheart.org/608-en/ChildrenCurrentlyinIsrael.aspx

New smartphone does medical tests

Introducing LifeWatch V, an Israeli-engineered phone that performs and analyzes a range of self-tests and sends reports to your doctor.
(By Avigayil Kadesh)

The Israeli company LifeWatch Technologies is launching a unique smartphone that not only makes calls but can perform and analyze a whole range of medical tests and send a report of the results to users and their physicians.

CEO Dr. Yacov Geva says the Android-based LifeWatch V will be especially useful to help manage many aspects of a chronic medical condition such as diabetes. Blood glucose test strips can be inserted right into a portal on the phone’s stainless-steel frame and it can send reminders to check glucose levels and take insulin.
The smartphone’s embedded sensors also let you check your blood oxygen saturation level, perform an at-home electrocardiogram (ECG) or measure your blood pressure with an attached sleeve. You can use its pedometer to keep track of your daily footsteps and its thermometer to take your temperature. It helps you figure out your body fat percentage, plan your diet and log your workouts.

LifeWatch V sends all the test data automatically and securely to a remote server in the cloud for analysis by the company’s proprietary algorithms. Results and trend data are quickly shared with the user and, if desired, with a third party via email or text message.

An idea whose time has come

The Rehovot-based company expects to launch European and Israeli sales sometime in May 2013, and in the United States by the end of the year, following expected clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology of China will manufacture the smartphones based on the Israeli specs and industrial design. Interface is to be available in Hebrew, English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
“We will sell the device for between $500 and $700, depending on the country and individual carrier agreement,” says Geva.
He conceived of the idea back in the age of Palm Pilots. His original patents for the embedded sensors date back to 1998, and additional development work was done in 2001 and 2006. However, only recently has the technology gotten “friendly” enough to make the product viable.
“The real breakthrough came when Apple changed how a smartphone could be used, so we were able to take our initiative forward and develop the product based on an Android operating system,” says Geva, who adds that LifeWatch came into this project with more than 20 years of experience developing 45 different types of medical sensors.

The company designed LifeWatch V for ease of use, whether the user is six or 86 years old. One of the prime markets will be children with diabetes.

“Parents can follow their children to see if they’re doing daily testing and taking their insulin while they’re at school,” Geva explains. “Let’s say a child has to do a blood glucose test at 9 am. When he does the test, the data is sent automatically to the cloud and the parents can get the results immediately, on any kind of device. If the parent does not see that the test was done, the parent can call to remind the child.”

Mobile healthcare is the watchword

LifeWatch was founded about two decades ago as a subsidiary of LifeWatch AG, a leading Swiss healthcare technology and solutions provider, to develop ambulatory diagnostic testing.

There are 65 employees at its R&D center in Rehovot’s Rabin Science Park, and almost 500 people staff LifeWatch’s three emergency call centers in the United States. The public company offers a range of patient technologies and services, such as home-based heart monitoring and home sleep testing, in addition to wireless monitoring devices for emergency medical personnel.

“More than 300,000 new patients every year in the US are being monitored through LifeWatch,” Geva says.
American owners of the medical smartphone will be able to have the test results sent directly to one of those emergency call centers, and Israeli users will have one of their own soon, says Geva.

Already looking to the future, he reveals that the next-generation LifeWatch smartphone will have additional sensors incorporated for even more functionality. But the soon-to-launch model already represents a historic first in mobile healthcare. And if its built-in capabilities do not meet an individual user’s specific needs, Geva says it’s possible to download any other appropriate apps to the device.

Guess Who Got First Place in the Technion Med School?

Guess who graduated first in this year's medical school class at the Technion, Israel's version of M.I.T.? The answer will surprise you. It's a 27-year-old stereotype-buster: a charming, feminist, smart, open-minded and observant Islamic woman named Mais Ali-Saleh who grew up in a small village outside of Nazareth, in Israel's Galilee.

Ali-Selah's academic excellence not only marks her own personal achievement but also proves that contrary to propaganda spouted by proponents of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement -- whose latest convert is Stephen Hawking -- an academic boycott of Israel is the wrong approach to solving the Israel-Arab conflict. Moreover, it ultimately hurts the very people it claims to help. Ali-Selah put it best when she said, "An academic boycott of Israel is a passive move, and it doesn't achieve any of its purported objectives."

After Ali-Selah's first class at the Technion, in Haifa, northern Israel, she was ready to call it quits. Ali-Selah had studied Hebrew from elementary school through high school but in the predominantly Arab area around Nazareth, she rarely used Hebrew and her vocabulary was limited. During Ali-Selah's first Chemistry lecture, she couldn't understand why her professor kept talking about malls. What did shopping malls have to do with Chemistry? She then realized the professor was speaking about moles, a standard scientific unit for measuring quantities of minute entities.

For more on this story go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-bletter/guess-whos-valedictorian_b_3602610.html?utm_hp_ref=tw    

Disabled Gaza toddler lives at Israeli hospital

Abandoned by his parents and the Palestinian government, 3-year-old Mohammed has been at Tel Hashomer Hospital all his life

http://www.timesofisrael.com/disabled-gaza-toddler-lives-at-israeli-hospital/

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — In his short life, Palestinian toddler Mohammed al-Farra has known just one home: the yellow-painted children’s ward in Israel’s Tel Hashomer Hospital.

Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed’s hands and feet were amputated because of complications from his condition, and the 3½-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned him, and the Palestinian government won’t pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather.

There’s no care for this child in Gaza, there’s no home in Gaza where he can live,” said the grandfather, Hamouda al-Farra.

“He can’t open anything by himself, he can’t eat or take down his pants. His life is zero without help,” he said at the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital, part of the Tel Hashomer complex in the Israeli city of Ramat Gan.

Mohammed’s plight is an extreme example of the harsh treatment some families mete out to the disabled, particularly in the more tribal-dominated corners of the Gaza Strip, even as Palestinians make strides in combating such attitudes.

It also demonstrates a costly legacy of Gaza’s strongly patriarchal culture that prods women into first-cousin marriages and allows polygamy, while rendering mothers powerless over their children’s fate.

Mohammed was rushed to Israel as a newborn for emergency treatment. His genetic disorder left him with a weakened immune system and crippled his bowels, doctors say, and an infection destroyed his hands and feet, requiring them to be amputated.

In the midst of his treatment, his mother abandoned Mohammed because her husband, ashamed of their son, threatened to take a second wife if she didn’t leave the baby and return to their home in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis, Farra said. In Gaza, polygamy is permitted but isn’t common. But it’s a powerful threat to women fearful of competing against newer wives.

Now Mohammed spends his days undergoing treatment and learning how to use prosthetic limbs.

His 55-year-old grandfather cares for him. Mohammed’s Israeli doctors, who’ve grown attached to the boy, fund-raise to cover his bills, allowing him and his grandfather to live in the sunny pediatric ward.

But it’s not clear how long he’ll stay in the hospital, or where he’ll go when his treatment is complete. As a Palestinian, Mohammed is not eligible for permanent Israeli residency. Yet his family will not take the child back, the grandfather said. His parents, contacted by The Associated Press, refused to comment.

As his grandfather spoke, Mohammed used his knees and elbows to scamper up and down a nearby stairwell, his knees and elbows blackened and scarred from constant pressure. He used his arms to hold a green bottle he found in a stroller. His prosthetic legs with painted-on shoes were strewn nearby.

He crawled toward his grandfather’s lap. “Baba!” he shouted, Arabic for “daddy.” ”Ana ayef,” he said — a mix of Arabic and Hebrew for “I’m tired.”

Dr. Raz Somech, the senior physician in the Tel Hashomer pediatric immunology department, attributes Mohammed’s genetic disorder to the several generations of cousin marriages in his family — including his parents.

In deeply patriarchal parts of Gaza — not in all the territory — men believe they have “first rights” to wed their female cousins, even above the women’s own wishes. Parents approve the partnerships because it strengthens family bonds and ensures inheritances don’t leave the tribe.

Repeated generations of cousin marriages complicate blood ties. It’s not clear what affect that has had on disability rates in Gaza; but Somech said a third of patients in his department are Palestinians and most have genetic diseases that were the result of close-relation marriages.

Further worsening the situation, disabled children are often stigmatized.

Some families hide the children, fearing they won’t be able to marry off their able-bodied children if the community knows of their less-abled siblings. And they are seen as burdens in the impoverished territory.

Some 183,600 Gaza residents — or 10.8 percent of the 1.7 million Gazans — suffer some kind of disability that affects their mental health, eyesight, hearing or mobility. Some 40,800 people suffer severe disability, the Palestinian bureau of statistics reported in 2011.

According to the bureau, two-thirds of young disabled Gazans are illiterate and some 40 percent were never sent to school, suggesting either their parents kept them home or did not have the means to educate them — a likely scenario in the territory, where about two-thirds of the population live under the poverty line. Over 90 percent of the disabled are unemployed, the bureau said.

Hope from Gaza

The Full Story - with thanks to the staff at the Emek Medical Center for this story

Part I

I went to our Pediatric ICU in search of M.Z. from Gaza. I heard that his baby daughter was flown here from Southern Israel by helicopter after our medical team connected her to the ECMO machine that temporarily takes over the functioning of the heart and lungs. Our mobile ECMO team is the only of its kind in Israel. I saw a large group of Arabs relaxing on the grass outside the department and asked if M.Z. was among them. They answered me that they were Israeli Bedouins and not from Gaza. I found M.Z. sitting alone outside on the other side of the building ... smoking and looking dazed.

Thus our conversation began. After introducing myself and shaking his hand, I asked about his daughter. ‘‘She's only one year and eight months old ... and the only one of my eight children who looks like me.’‘ His eyes were red, tired and reflected great pain. M.Z. told me how the little girl one day could not breathe and how he rushed her, without incident, from Gaza to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. After several days there her condition rapidly and seriously deteriorated and that's when our team flew to hopefully rescue her. M.Z. was angry at the fateful turn of events that had befallen his daughter and could only refer to Allah (God) for mercy. He was grateful that our people were doing everything possible to save his child. We began discussing politics and the direction our two peoples were heading. There we were ... a Jewish grandfather (me) and a Muslim father of a gravely ill child from Gaza ... talking like old friends ... almost like family. The mere fact that he was here while our physicians fought to save the life of his little girl is noteworthy these days. Did we solve anything? Politically, certainly not ... medically, we are hoping for the best. Just another example of life in Israel at eye level ... far beyond the media.

Part II

That first encounter with M.Z. was on a Thursday. The following Sunday I learned from the attending physician, Dr. Merzel, that there was no change in the little girl’s condition. Her name … Hadil. I again walked across the hospital campus to find her father and this time I found him in the simple room where parents of critically ill children could sleep. The Pediatric ICU is not a happy place and he was not a happy man. The gravity of Hadil’s condition was etched in his face as he murmured over and over, ‘‘Hum-Dulelah’‘ (blessed be the name of the Lord). In Hebrew we say, ‘‘Baruch- Hashem’‘ and he flipped between the two languages. We greeted each other with a sincere Middle Eastern hug and kisses on the cheek. M.Z. was alone and it was important to me, in the name of humanity and of my people, to provide him with some personalized contact. ‘‘Come, my friend, let me buy you some coffee, something to eat and we’ll go to my office. You need a change of scenery.’‘

We ate and drank together, sitting on opposite sides of my desk and once again spoke as if we had known each other for years. So natural, so right. I then accompanied him back to the ICU where he could be near his daughter. When I left him, we both glanced skywards and opened our hands, acknowledging that Hadil’s fate rested with Allah, God or whatever name we mortals choose to give our Creator.

The next morning Dr. Merzel informed me that Hadil’s condition was extremely grave and that she was not responding. The end was near. With a heavy heart, I walked over to find M.Z. He was not there so I looked into the room to see his daughter, jaundiced, so very small and vulnerable, attached to the ECMO that pumped blood and oxygen through her failing body. A moment later, M.Z. entered the hallway with his wife who had been rushed here from Gaza, accompanied by his cousin. She could not bring herself to turn the corner to look upon her daughter … to say goodbye. I respectfully stood well off to the side, as did the nurses, as M.Z. encouraged her forward. Tragedy is any parent having to experience such a moment in their lives.

Later, in the hallway, M.Z. introduced me to his wife and cousin. I held her hand between my own and we looked into one another’s eyes. Nothing needed to be said.

Later that afternoon as I was leaving to return home, M.Z. and his cousin stopped me with urgency on their faces. ‘‘Please …,’‘ pleaded M.Z. ‘‘My cousin and wife were only given permission by the authorities to enter Israel for twelve hours. They want to stay with me tonight because the end of Hadil is very near. Can you help us?’‘

What a macabre situation I was faced with … not really knowing how to attain the permission they needed. I immediately contacted the head of our security who then put me in touch with a uniformed policeman, Reuven, who was stationed permanently at the hospital. Reuven is an Ethiopian who speaks Hebrew and Arabic as well as his native tongue. ‘‘How do you know Arabic?’‘ I asked him. ‘‘I spent some time in Sudan,’‘ he answered in his typically gentle Ethiopian manner.

So began a myriad of telephone calls to first the central police authority and then to the army who was ultimately responsible for any Palestinian entering Israel from either Gaza or the West Bank. The hours were ticking by. If we did not succeed in getting to the right person, then the cousin and wife, when attempting to cross back into Gaza, would be arrested and interrogated as to their whereabouts beyond the time that was allotted them. Such a scenario was incomprehensible to me considering the nightmare they were living.

We had run smack into the steel reinforced concrete wall of military bureaucracy. It was then late in the afternoon and I realized that I was in deep water far over my head. I suggested to the cousin that he take a taxi back to Gaza to avoid his being unjustifiably arrested and that we would find a solution for the mother of little Hadil. They all agreed.

M.Z. later remembered the name of the Palestinian liaison officer at the governmental level in Gaza who helped negotiate matters of extenuating circumstances … but he did not have his phone number. He tried calling a relative in Gaza who might have that number, but his mobile phone could not make the necessary connection. I took him to our administration office where the only international phone line was located. We were successful in finding his relative and in getting that final phone number.

I spoke with the liaison officer who was familiar with the story and he thanked me for intervening on behalf of the family. He also said that he would personally handle the contacts with his Israeli counterpart to guarantee the safe passage of the family when they returned to Gaza. I handed the phone to M.Z. who spoke and shed tears as he thanked the man for his help.

I returned home later that evening, several hours after being stopped by those people who needed some help. Palestinians from Gaza.

The next day at 9:40 AM, Hadil passed away. With a heavy heart, I walked over to face the bereaved parents. The three of us sat quietly together in their room … as the mother, dazed and broken, mumbled repeatedly … ‘‘Hum-Dulelah, Hum-Dulelah.’‘ M.Z. cried as we parted with a long hug and kisses on both cheeks. We stared long, hard into each other’s eyes and just nodded.

Our hospital arranged for an ambulance from Gaza to come and take M.Z., his wife and the body of Hadil back home.

Many people complain that an Israeli would never be given an equal opportunity if the situation were reversed. That is not what this is all about. This sad story graphically illustrates a reality of life here that is hidden from the world’s media. Israeli technology, medical expertise and human kindness are available to Palestinians in need. We were not able to save little Hadil, but we tried.

Blood replacement saves baby from whooping cough

JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH 02/27/2013

In first-ever case in Israel, doctors in Western Galilee Hospital save newborn from whooping cough with infused blood.

http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=304674  


Baby recieving blood infusion at Nahariya’s Western Galilee Hospital.
Photo: Courtesy Ronnie Albert/Western Galilee Hospital

 Staffers at Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya saved the life of a month-old baby, after performing a treatment never before used in Israel.

The government hospital announced Tuesday that the baby was discharged after her recovery.

The newborn contracted whooping cough and was hospitalized in pediatric intensive care. A multidisciplinary team from the pediatric intensive care department, pediatric pulmonology, the infectious diseases unit and pediatric hematology cared for the baby, who was infected before her parents managed to get her vaccinated against the disease.

Dr. Ze’ev Sonis, head of pediatric intensive care, noted that the disease can be very serious – and sometimes fatal – in young children. In some cases, there is an increase in white blood cells due to toxins released by the bacteria that cause the disease – which in fact caused the baby to develop pulmonary hypertension.

In the world medical literature, only a few similar cases have been found, and just a few of these have been successfully treated. Because of the baby’s dangerous condition, it was decided to replace her blood with infused blood.

The procedure was carried out by Sonis; Dr. Yoav Hoffmann and Dr. Yoav Hoffman and Dr. Husein Dabbah of the pediatric intensive care department; hematology’s Dr. Amir Kuperman; and Dr. Danny Glickman of the infectious disease unit.

“What led to the decision of blood replacement,” said Kuperman, “was the awareness that the risk of doing so was less than not doing so. After consulting with outside experts in the field, we performed it, and it was a success. It greatly improved the baby’s condition, and she was weaned from her respirator after weeks of hospitalization. She is the first Israeli to have been successfully treated for the condition this way.”

Whooping cough can be prevented by vaccinating children in family health (tipat halav) centers. However, very young babies have sometimes been infected because they were not old enough to get their shots.

They are usually infected by relatives – their parents or older siblings. The risk can be minimized by immunizing pregnant women against whooping cough and completing vaccination schedules of all family members expecting a baby.

The baby’s parents emotionally thanked the hospital team for saving her with an expert diagnosis and treatment.

GPS for Brain Surgeons

A line of products trusted by neurosurgeons and neuroscience researchers on six continents was developed by a Christian-Arab couple in Nazareth, Israel.

Abigail Klein Leichman – Israel 21C

Two Arab Nazarenes meet at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, fall in love, get married and move back home to start a high-tech business financed only by the sale of their car.

Doesn’t sound like a recipe for success? Well, it worked out fine for Imad and Reem Younis, whose company Alpha Omega is a world leader in producing pioneering products for neurosurgery and neuroscience research.

Last June, Alpha Omega http://www.alphaomega-eng.com/was named the 2012 American Israeli Company of the Year by the American Israeli Chamber of Commerce in Atlanta, Georgia. One of its international sales and support offices in based in Alpharetta, near Atlanta.

Reem Younis, a civil engineer (her husband’s degree is in electrical engineering), explains: “Alpha Omega’s knowhow is ‘driving’ safely inside the brain with an electrode, recording neural activity, stimulating neural tissue, processing and analyzing the data.

“In simple terms, you can look at it as a GPS inside the brain that guides the neurosurgeon to the required location, where a permanent electrode is implanted. This treatment is supposed to eliminate disease symptoms, and the patient can go back to his or her normal life.”

The company’s recording and stimulation tools, which have both FDA (US) and CE (Europe) approvals, are helpful in two realms. Neuroscientists use them in the lab to understand more about the human brain, and neurosurgeons use them for treating patients with a variety of neural disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia, a nervous system disorder that causes involuntary muscles contractions and spasms.

“In Europe this method is used also for treating people with [clinical] depression,” says Younis.

Meeting future needs

Alpha Omega was established in 1993 in Nazareth, a Christian Arab city that recently hosted its first Startup Weekend event. The company’s sophisticated machinery is manufactured locally and sold through offices in the United States, Israel and Germany, as well as by sales representatives in China, Japan and South America.

The mainly Christian and Muslim Arab staff of 35 in Alpha Omega’s Nazareth headquarters are graduates of the Technion or Tel Aviv University.

During Global Entrepreneurship Week in November, Reem and Imad Younis went from one northern Arab municipality to another, explaining their company’s technology and entrepreneurship model to high school students with the goal of encouraging other innovators like themselves.

“We are 20 percent of the [Israeli] population and also need to be 20% of the Israeli high-tech scene, but we are not,” says Younis. “It’s closer to 1%. Alpha Omega is about bringing high-tech to Nazareth and giving employment to very highly qualified engineers.”

She says the company’s equipment is well known around the world for accuracy and stability. “We are in more than 100 hospitals and more than 500 labs on six continents. Our main market is, of course, the USA.”

Younis says one reason for the company’s success is its close relationship with the research community, particularly at the Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem and other top researchers in Israel and beyond.

“Because Alpha Omega is involved in both the medical and research fields, we hear about new needs and trends,” says Younis. “We know where the market is leading in five or 10 years, so that our excellent teams will develop the appropriate systems for serving humanity and fulfilling the company’s mission.”