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Tuesday, December 20, 2005

The Prime Minister's Stroke And My Father's Stroke

The Prime Minister had a mild stroke yesterday. May he have a speedy recovery, and may he live to be 120, as a private citizen and not as the Prime Minister of Israel, speedily and in our days, Amen.

Sharon, being that he is the Prime Minister, received all of the tests that he needed immediately. The average Israeli does not get such special treatment.

A few years ago, my father, may he live to be 120, was in Israel and suffered a mild stroke. After taking him to the Bikur Holim hospital in downtown Jerusalem, the doctor gave us a series of tests to do (a CT and a lot of other tests whose names I have forgotten). We were told that for some of the tests we would have to wait for as long as two weeks before they could give us and appointment. We were quite upset about having to wait so long to have the tests done. We came home and I told my wife. She said she heard about a macher from Bayit VeGan called Z. that may be able to help us. My wife called Z., and he said that he would come to us tomorrow morning in a taxi and that he would be going to the Hadassah Ein Karem hospital.

The next morning a cab stopped by our apartment and inside was Z., dressed from head to toe in black Hasidic garb (actually, his socks may have been white). He was a jovial guy and told my father a joke in Yiddish which my father enjoyed. When we got tho the hospital we saw that all of the staff there knew Z. and treated him with great honor. We came to the place were there was a line of about 15 people waiting to do a CT scan. Z. entered a door that said "staff only." Two minutes later we heard our name called and my father had the CT scan done, ahead of everyone else who was waiting on line. We spent the entire morning doing tests as Z. guided us through the hospital corridors. In one morning we completed all of the tests! I do not know how Z. was able to arrange all of this. To this day the matter is a total mystery to me. Afterwards we took a cab back home, dropping Z. off at the Kollel he learns at in Bayit VeGan. May G-d bless him.

BTW, my father is doing just fine. He recovered most of the functions he lost because of the stroke, as his brain learned reroute its messages to bypass the affected area.

5 comments:

Jameel @ The Muqata said...

Its never what you know, but who you know.

Jerusalemcop said...

My father had a similar experience (only the first part tho) 6 years ago when he was visiting. He had a mild stroke and it wasn't easy for him in the hospital because he didnt know Hebrew. They kept him in the hospital for over a week and then sent him to rehab in Har Tzofim for 2 more weeks. They couldn't do all the test right away, so he had to wait and since it was around the chagim, it took even longer than normal.

Thank god his brain also has rerouted and he has 99% of his functions back.

Jameel is right tho, it's who you know...

Batya said...

Refuah shleimah.

My father had a cerebral anuerism (spelling?) a few years ago when visiting my sister in Arizona. He ended up in one of the world's best wards specializing in just what he had. My parents are convinced that if he had been home, he would not have recovered as fully.

There's a lot of siyato d'shmaya involved.

Batya said...

ps
Home for them is NY.

rockofgalilee said...

batya,
no one in NY recovers fully.

my brother-in-law is at hadassah ein kerem now with a mild stroke and the people there seem to be incompetant. He got there a day before sharon.

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