Last night coworkers Michiel, Ben and I traveled to Hadassah Hospital to support the sweet baby Abeer.
Abeer is just one day old. Her aunt arrived an hour earlier at the hospital. While we were entering the door into the PICU, we met an ambulance EMT who was trying to stabilize this tiny little baby as she had turned blue after her delivery in Gaza and was transported via ambulance to Hadassah Hospital in an attempt to try to save her life.
It humbles you when you see this happen in reality, how the boundaries fall and everyone involved in this amazing miracle join hands around one little fragile human being, in this case named Abeer. I love it.
A chair was brought forth for her aunt, a glass of water, a cup of tea, and after a little while another one of the mothers from Gaza came with a tray of food for her. It was beautiful to see all this happen, and during the happening of all this, her focus was upon the little one while the crew’s effort to try to stabilize her continued.
After a while my coworkers went home to sleep, and I felt blessed being able to stay. The hours passed by, and even if this aunt and I just spoke a little bit via a translation app on the phone, there was a warm and loving connection created between us while sharing this fragile experience.
All the time it struck me how calm and secure the medical staff seemed to be, even though some came and some left. Everyone was working together as one body, and I think both Abeer’s aunt and I were affected by their calmness, and I admired what I saw. In the middle of the night we were told that “there is an emergency situation,” and Abeer’s aunt was offered a room to go to sleep. The message was clear, we needed to leave the area at once, so we did.
What happened next was the doctors and medical staff immediately had to do an interventional catheterization in her heart. While the cath doesn’t solve the problem, but is only temporary, it was done to save her life ahead of the surgery.
Please pray for baby Abeer and her family, but please don’t forget to cover all the medical staff in prayer. They’re doing a marvellous job.