When we arrived at Sheba Medical Center, we found Ibraheem already safely in his room, surrounded by doctors and nurses performing tests and examinations. He had been transferred by ambulance early in the morning, as soon as a bed had opened for him.
Ibraheem is a 25-day-old little boy from the West Bank diagnosed with Truncus. Remarkably enough, both his diagnosis, home city, and birth hospital are all the same as little Aisel, who is right across from him in the ICU. Ibrahim is a couple weeks older than Aisel; we’ve said to their parents that perhaps their children will grow up to be friends.
Ibraheem did not receive his diagnosis until after a couple weeks of life, when his parents noticed that he was breathing unusually rapidly and took him to see the doctor. Afterwards there was a fairly quick process of transferring him to Sheba, where we met him and his father. Ibraheem is a very cute little boy; he’s eagerly looking around and attentive to his environment, or at least, as much as a not yet one month old boy can be.
Ibraheem will need surgery in the coming weeks, but before that he’ll have a a gamut of tests run upon him. As his family has three other children at home, all of whom are young, Ibraheem is alone in the hospital with his father, a soft-spoken man who welcomed us generously and was glad to see us.
We pray for Ibraheem’s father, for strength in supporting his son, and that this dear boy will be treated with care and wisdom and insight by his doctors as we await his big surgery.