Early this morning I went to Sheba Hospital to be with Asil’s mother during Asil’s surgery. Asil’s mom was very worried about her daughter and had a lot of questions for me. During our waiting time, a lot of other Gaza mothers joined us and we had a good time together.
But as time went by, Asil’s mother also got more and more nervous. After Asil was in surgery for six hours, her mom started crying and barely stopped. It was unusual how long the surgery took and so i understood her worries.
After eight hours, we finally saw that Asil was back in her room and shortly afterwards the surgeon came to us to explain what happened. They successfully did the Norwood procedure, the first surgery for kids with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and it was very complicated. Asil had a lot of bleeding and her blood pressure was not stable so they had to leave her chest open for now. She is getting a lot of support right now and they hope she will stabilize soon. They also hope to be able to close her chest in a few days.
Asil’s mother was relieved but still pretty worried, so I waited with her until her husband came back from work a little later and came to also see his daughter.