Last night, before I left the office, I answered some e-mails regarding a possible HMO involvement in Georgia. There was none at the time so I wrote: "not that I know of" Thirty minutes later on my way home, I was informed that Prof. Avi Rivkind had been asked to go to Georgia to help treat Zadok Yehezkeli, a senior reporter of Yedioth Aharonoth Israel daily Hebrew newspaper, who was very seriously injured there. This was only the beginning of the drama.
Prof. Rivkind took on the plane with him Dr. Micha Shamir, a senior physician from our department of anesthesiology and critical care, a paramedic from Magen David Adom, some basic equipment and medications, and at 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday night they left Israel on their way to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Yehezkeli was one of many reporters from all over the world covering the war in the town of Gori, some 40 miles out of Tbilisi. While standing in the main city square, they were caught by heavy fire and possibly even bombardment. A Dutch cameraman was killed and Yehezkeli was severely wounded, lying on the street, not able to move. He was evacuated to a local hospital by colleagues in a private car and then transferred to a hospital in Tbilisi, where he given 16 units of blood and operated on twice. His newspaper decided to fly Israeli doctors to see how he was, and of Hadassah was the natural choice.
The Hadassah team arrived in Georgia at around midnight last night, and immediately went to the hospital. They found Yehezkeli fully conscious, a short time after he had been operated on. He was in a very serious condition. Our doctors introduced themselves to him by their names, and he nodded his head in recognition. They then anesthetized him and performed fluid resuscitation on him, together with the local team.
Prof. Rivkind decided that the best thing for Yehezkeli was to immediately bring him back to Israel, to Hadassah.
This morning, at 9:00 a.m., Yehezkeli and his Hadassah rescuers entered Hadassah Ein Kerem in an ambulance directly from Ben Gurion Airport. The media was represented here by dozens of reporters, photographers and TV crews. Yehezkeli was taken immediately to the General Intensive Care Unit, and is being treated there since.
His condition as of now is still serious but stable. He is ventilated and anesthetized.
While Hadassah physicians were treating Yehezkeli, the State of Israel made sure that hundreds of Israeli citizens and Georgian Jews who were caught in the battle zone were flown in three special flights from Tbilsi to Israel. All of them arrived safely. No other country made such an effort. For the Israelis in Georgia, it was absolutely clear that their country would come to their rescue. For the people in Yedioth Aharonoth, it was absolutely clear that Hadassah would come to their rescue.
The attached picture shows Yehezkeli minutes after he was put on the Hadassah ICU bed. Dr. Micha Shamir is first on the left and Prof. Rivkind is second from right.
Ron Krumer