Last night there was a very moving item on the TV news.
When Aharon Karov arrived at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikveh on January 12 after being critically wounded in a blast in a booby-trapped house in Gaza, doctors held out little hope that he would survive. A paratrooper officer, he had been called up to join the fighting two weeks earlier, the day after his wedding.
Yesterday TV cameras recorded him leaving hospital in a wheelchair, with his wife by his side, for rehabilitation at the Sheba Medical Centre in Tel Hashomer.
Dr. Steve Jackson, the neurosurgeon who operated on Aharon, is a major in the Golani brigade reserves. He saluted Aharon as he left the hospital, and Aharon was able to respond with his own salute.
Dr. Jackson, who is also a mohel, recalled the moment he told Aharon’s family that he had suffered serious head trauma. “They all cried, including his wife, so I told them, ‘God willing, I’ll circumcise your son’.”
Despite Aharon’s miraculous recovery so far, no-one is denying that he still has lengthy rehabilitation ahead of him. The scars clearly visible all over his head tell their own story of just how near death he was.
His family agreed to allow TV cameras to film what was obviously a very emotional moment, they said, to bolster the morale of the Israeli people. When interviewed, his father, a rabbi, said that we should never despair, because Aharon’s recovery proves that everything is possible, both personally and on a national level.
Aharon’s father did not bemoan the situation or blame anyone in the army or government, and he didn’t scream for revenge against Hamas, who booby-trapped the house in Gaza. He finished by thanking everyone for their prayers and support.
What an amazing example of courage and dignity.
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