Greetings to Friends of Shevet Achim,
My wife and I and our three young boys have settled in comfortably here
at the house on Prophets St. This old house has many of the problems inherent
in a house built 130 years ago, but it has a lot of character which we
are enjoying very much.
If you have checked the Shevet Achim website recently (www.shevet.org) you saw a picture of our family. It is good to be back in Jerusalem once again. Even after 23 years of living in this land, with each new sunrise I still feel privileged to be able to be here.
Our goal is to relieve Jonathan of all responsibilities of the Jerusalem office as soon as possible. This will take awhile as there definitely is a learning curve as there is with any new job.
Two weeks ago I visited the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon for the first time. We had appointments set up with two of the doctors and also the director of “Save A Child’s Heart”. I was received so graciously that I felt almost like a VIP. Each of the doctors and others heaped kudos on Jonathan. They really love him there at the hospital and because of the respect they have for him I was received with honor as well.
Walking through the doors of the hospital it does not take long for one to sense that politics is truly left outside. Having lived in Israel for a few decades this is an immensely satisfying experience. I had heard about it and now I saw it with my own eyes. A Palestinian mother standing by the bed of her 2 week old daughter and immediately next to her an Israeli mother attending to her 5 month old son. Light years apart ideologically but brought together by the love for their critically ill child.
My heart melted over and over as we visited each baby and received a brief synopsis of the child’s condition from Dr. Eli Gilad. Some have more compassion than others in dealing with sick adults in hospitals. However I think that it is the rare person who is not touched to the core by observing the fragile body of a baby with all the foreign tubes stuck to almost every inch of his/her body. Perhaps it is the combination of frailty and naivete which makes your heart go out to each child. The older children who are awake seem to handle their situation so well. No looks of self pity on their faces unlike yours truly during his hospital stays.
Dr. Gilad introduced himself by his first name, Eli. This unpretentious attitude is a welcome touch and certainly breaks down walls. I liked him immediately. Very soon however I was lost in the fast flow of medical jargon. My aptitude on medical terms will definitely need to improve.
We met little Mohammed first, pictured here with Eli. He has had a rough
time from day one. He arrived at the hospital looking like the color of
an eggplant. He had almost no flow of blood to his lungs. His hemoglobin
was only 13% instead of the normal 95%-100%. He has been stabilized but
he still has an intestinal bug which needs to be treated before he can
undergo heart surgery.
Two and a half year old Yasmin (at right) was next. She was sitting up in her bed looking a bit perplexed. The late Dr. Cohen operated on her a year ago and now Yasmin is back for another operation. Yasmin has an immune deficiency and she is sick a lot. She has what is called DiGeorge syndrome which means that she has very few “T” cells to fight infection. A few weeks ago they opened her chest for heart surgery and then she had a sudden rise in temperature so they had to close her up again. They rescheduled the operation and completed it successfully on Rosh HaShana.
Sabreen (at right) is only a month old. She had surgery two weeks ago and she is now recovering. This is the first of three planned operations in the months ahead. Like most of the children she has an obstruction in the flow of blood from the heart to the lungs.
Mahmoud (right) is also only a month old. His is a very unusual case. His organs are opposite from the normal placement. His heart and stomach are on the right side and his liver is on the left. This provides an extra challenge for the doctors as they must reverse everything in their minds constantly as they perform surgery. Some doctors need to use mirrors to successfully carry out the surgery. The doctors have been treating Mahmoud with a very expensive medicine ($250 a day) in order to get him strong enough for surgery. Mahmoud just had surgery on September 12 and he is doing well.
It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Palestinian babies at Wolfson. There are two more children who have been treated but we did not get pictures of them. There is Islam who underwent an angioplasty on September 4 and was immediately released to return home. She is doing well. Then there is another boy by the name of Mahmoud who underwent a very complicated surgery on Rosh HaShana. He will be ready to return home in about 7 to 10 days.
Well there is the brief story of six precious lives who have received the loving care of the surgeons at Wolfson Medical Center. The nurses are also super, caring people. I wish you could watch them at work. Once again ideologically many of the employees of the hospital are diametrically opposed to the Palestinian families who bring the children. However the phrase heard over and over at the hospital is “a child is a child.” With this small seed of love and care germinating between the Israelis and the Palestinians it does give one hope for the future. Truth be told what is happening daily at Wolfson Medical Center is really just a small drop in a very large ocean. However it is a drop and we pray that our Lord will continue to move on the hearts and minds of brothers who are for the time estranged.
Philip Berg
Office Manager
Shevet Achim
POB 32296
Jerusalem 91000
Israel
Shevet Achim is a non-profit association registered in Israel. The name
is taken from Psalm 133: "Behold how good and how pleasant for brothers
to dwell together in unity."
