  News
Alert Update, Sheba Medical Center-Tel Hashomer, Israel A
day spent with Palestinian children from Gaza and the West Bank who are hospitalized
at Sheba Medical Center, and with their parents, and with a volunteer group that
tries to help them. Article
by Yossi Algazi, Ha'aretz. Nava Hernes reported the following to friends in the volunteer group. "I was at the Sheba Medical Center on Friday. As usual, the Intensive Care Unit is the busiest one. I brought a cooked meal and groceries (tea, sugar, coffee). I also brought telephone cards which were immediately snatched from my hands, and although I had brought a large number there were none left for people in other departments. The adults in the various departments all received packages of food. I also brought diapers, for infants and children two years of age." For over a year members of Nava's volunteer group have been tending to the needs of hospitalized Palestinian children and their parents, from Gaza and the West Bank. Bella Golan, the group's coordinator, told me about the circumstances that triggered the establishment of the group, and how the group functions. "In October 2002, Vidah Al-Hatib, a Palestinian from Bet Aba, a small village west of Shchem, called me and told me that the parents of Shahab Ashtawi, a two-week-old baby from his village, who was hospitalized at Sheba due to a congenital heart disease, were desperate for help." She relates that "when I met the parents the next day they told me of their concern for the baby's condition and about having to leave three small children behind in the village. I was surprised to learn that for a number of days they had not eaten properly, had not showered or been able to change clothes. Only later it became clear that other parents of hospitalized children from Gaza and the West Bank must function under the same conditions." Bella Golan decided to go public with these facts on the internet site ACTLEFT, in the hope that people would volunteer to help the families of hospitalized children. The result was that a volunteer group was organized and its primary activity was concentrated on the Intensive Care Department, the Oncology Department, Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery Departments, and the Rehabilitation Department. Today the group includes about a dozen members - both men and women, Jews and Moslems. Bella Golan told me about Shahab Ashtawi's period of hospitalization. "After about three days at the hospital the mother had to return to the village to take care of her other children and the father remained with the baby. We learned from the father about the many obstacles facing the family of a Palestinian child hospitalized in Israel. It takes a long time to get a permit to visit, and the permit is good for only one day. Permits are sometimes denied for "security reasons." One of the volunteers, a young IDF soldier, used to come to visit Shahab Ashtawi at the hospital on a daily basis.. Sometimes he recruited friends from his unit for back-up. According to Bella Golan, who lives in Moshav Bet She'arim and is the community nurse for Zarzir settlement in the North, the Ashtawis did not bring any personal belongings with them to the hospital in order to make the checkpoint crossing easier and avoid the intense security check that prolongs the entire process. When they arrive at the hospital they are required to deposit their ID cards. Hospital staff is aware that since they may have to remain at the hospital for days or even weeks, they do not dare leave the hospital grounds for fear of arrest a illegal aliens. She continues "They feel safe on the hospital ground near the department where their loved ones are hospitalized. The moment they leave the premises they feel vulnerable." She tells me that once when Ka'ad Ashtawi left the hospital for an hour to buy food he was arrested by the security staff and brought to the Ramat Gan police station and, only after the volunteer group intervened and explained the reason for his being there, he was released. During the Ramadan month of fasting Ka'ad Ashtawi returned to his home. However, the baby's condition suddenly worsened and he was called back to the hospital by the attending physicians. He was held up at the checkpoint, and only after Bella Golan contacted the civil administration was he allowed to proceed to the hospital to be with his baby son. In the end, despite all the doctors' efforts, the baby died. Vidah Al-Hatib says that "The news about their baby's death was devastating to the parents, but they know that the doctors and nurses at the hospital provided the best possible medical care for their baby son and did everything possible to safe his life." On their way to Sheba, residents of Gaza have to pass through the 'Erez' checkpoint, and residents of the West Bank have to pass through the checkpoint near Oranit. Passing through these checkpoints takes, at best, a half an hour and often one to two hours or more. To shorten this procedure most of them enter Israel without any personal belongings, although they often remain at the hospital for days or weeks. Due to financial distress, many of them arrive in Israel with no more than 20 shekels in their pockets. The volunteer group tries to provide for their needs. One volunteer, Hernes, a retired teacher from Herzelia, recalls that during her Friday shift two weeks ago she brought a cooked meal with her, and diapers, soap, and telephone cards. She paid for all of these things herself and her partner drives her to the hospital. Another volunteer, Amal Shahada from Haifa, an MA student in translation at the Bar Ilan university, arrived in her father's car last Friday with her aunts. They brought food that her aunts had cooked. Sometimes the family's neighbors also prepare the food, and send soap, candy and toys for the sick children. The needs of these families and their children are great. Last week the volunteer group was taking care of eighteen children. Group members pay for some of the items (food, toiletries, diapers, toys, telephone cards, etc.) out of their own pockets and they also receive cash donations. The information sheet for new volunteers reads that "the group does not hand out money, cannot provide medication or follow-up treatment, entrance permits to Israel, or permission to stay, or payment to the hospital". The Association of Doctors for Human Rights only provides the project with an organizational and material umbrella. Yussra Dib, a resident of the Al-Zitan area in Gaza, made telephone arrangements for an ambulance from Gaza to bring back the body of her three-month-old grandson, Abed Al-Rahman Dib, who had died of a cancer that had spread to his entire body. Then she found out that, based upon new regulations issued by security forces, ambulances from the Red Crescent (Moslem Red Cross) would not be allowed to enter the hospital campus. Upon arrival of the Red Crescent ambulance at the hospital gate, the body of her grandson would be transferred from a hospital ambulance to the Red Crescent ambulance. Yussra Dib says that the doctors treated her grandson with dedication and even asked the family to bring his four-year-old sister, Nura, to the hospital for testing. Aman Arba'i, from the Sheik Raduan district in Gaza, told me about her daughter Rania. "My two-year-old daughter, Rania, who suffers from Down's Syndrome, was diagnosed with a hole in her heart. She is the youngest of my eight children. My husband is unemployed. After considerable efforts, the Palestinian Authority agreed to fund the cost of surgery and hospitalization of my child in Israel. I am concerned, but I am sure that my child will receive the best medical care possible." From the beginning Bella Golan and her friends enjoyed the full cooperation
of the hospital management and the various departments. As an example of this
cooperation she sites the case of Muhmad Kot, a nine-year-old from the Shchem
area, urgently in need of bone marrow transplantation. The Palestinian Authority
provided about NIS 95,000 for hospitalization and treatment. "The bone marrow transplantation gave the child a new lease on life."
Says There is a waiting room in the Pediatric Intensive Care Department where families can use a kitchenette, and there are two small rooms with bunk beds, one designated for men and the other for women. Last week, a man wearing a prayer cap and his wife were sitting in the waiting room taking a rest. The man started up a friendly conversation with some Palestinians who were also sitting in the waiting room. One of the Palestinian mothers explains that "Sometimes we try to overcome communication difficulties with the aid of people who know both Hebrew and Arabic. Sometimes we speak in English, and when there is no other option we use our hands and communicate like a silent movie." Young women from the I.D.F. national volunteer service are always helpful. Another volunteer, Rina Moss, says that "The behavior and the good atmosphere in the department are really contagious. The Palestinian and Israeli parents are brought together by the common distress they share for their children's wellbeing. For example, not long ago, an Israeli mother from somewhere in the center of Israel, was anxiously standing near the door to the Intensive Care Department where her nine-year-old daughter was hospitalized due to brain hematoma. The father of a Palestinian child noticed how distressed she was and offered her a cup of tea that he had prepared for himself and started up a conversation. They sat down together, shared their uncertainties and fears and were able to comfort one another. It was a wonderful thing to see. A site more troubling to see is the groups that hand out food only to the parents of Jewish Israelis and Arab Israelis and not to Palestinians." The Palestinians say that they cannot thank the doctors, nurses and volunteers enough. They are careful not to refer to the checkpoints, and don't go into details about living conditions in the territories. When asked directly if they hate Israel and the Jews, young Palestinian mother replies "We do hate, but not everybody, not those who treat us like human beings, like here at the hospital. But we do hate those who make us suffer." According to Shahada, a volunteer, "The people who come to the hospital and witness the kind of medical treatment that their relatives receive, have to cope with an inner conflict resulting from the presence of the gap between the reality of life in the territories and the reality they find here at the hospital". She adds "The reality in the territories is familiar to me from medical days that I have participated in. The occupation creates a destructive reality and the hospital here is a kind of island of sanity". For
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