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Media Coverage
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Heart Reconciliation: A Young Iraqi Comes to Israel for Heart Surgery
Yediot Ahronot (Israel's largest-circulation daily newspaper) 20 January 2005
By Rebeka Frilech
Majid Rauf from Kirkuk was operated on with success at Schnieder
Hospital. His father that accompanied him said, “When we return
to Iraq we will tell everyone what kind of good people are here.”
Until not long ago, no one would have come up with such a scenario: a
youth from Iraq arrives in Israel to undergo an operation, correcting a
heart defect from birth. But exactly this scenario happened in these
past days at Schneider Hospital in Petah Tikva.
From the day he was born, Majid Rauf from Kirkuk suffered with a
complex heart defect—a narrowing of the passage of the right
ventricle and a hole between the two ventricles of the heart. Majid
unsuccessfully attempted to hide his emotions after the surgery.
“Now I want to return to be like a normal human being, to be
shipshape, to marry. Without the help of these good people here, I
would not be able to think about such things,” Majid said
emotionally to his father Rauf.
“I never imagined in my life, even once, that I would come to
Israel,” stammered the father Rauf. “When I return I
will tell everyone what kind of good people are here. I don’t
have words enough to thank the medical personnel.”
Majid’s family was not able to come up with the amount of money
for a surgery in Iraq. “We tried to have a normal life in spite
of the problems,” said Rauf, “but the sickness did not
allow Majid to live normally. Already in third grade he had to stop
going to school, and from then on he barely went out of the
house.”
Paradoxically, due to the war in Iraq Majid found renewed hope. After
the capture of Kirkuk, volunteers from the organization Shevet Achim
arrived, an American-British
organization of Christians who love Israel. With the help of these
volunteers, a connection was established with Prof. Bernardo Vidne,
head of the heart surgery department at Schneider Hospital, and within
a short time Majid and Rauf arrived to Israel, via Jordan.
“Majid has had the good fortune to live until today,”
explained Prof. Vidne yesterday. “We performed an operation to
mend a defect that we usually take care of before the child turns one
year. It is impossible to live like this for a long time.” The
organization Shevet Achim looked after the father and his son,
including their social well-being. Each day, 71-year-old Ghali
Nakash from Or Yehuda—an immigrant from Iraq in the
1950’s— comes to visit them.
“For me, it is very nice to meet someone from Iraq. We speak the
same language, we connect, and for sure we’ll keep in
touch,” said Ghali. Now Majid and Rauf wait to return home.
“We already are missing home,” the two said, even though
they are apprehensive about the difficult and stormy situation in Iraq.
Translated by Brian Kvasnica
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Our name Shevet Achim is taken from the Hebrew of Psalm 133: How good and how pleasant for
brothers to dwell together in unity...for there the LORD commanded the blessing--life forevermore. |
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© 2007 Shevet Achim
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