After 59 people were killed and 150 injured in a nightclub fire in Macedonia, an 11-person Israeli Ministry of Health delegation, including Dr. Stav Sarna Kahn, director of the Burns Unit at Hadassah hospitals, and Dr. Yuval Meroz, a senior anesthesiologist at Hadassah hospitals, flew to Macedonia to provide medical assistance. Dr. Kahn, who treats soldiers at the scar clinic at the Gandel Rehabilitation Center at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, shared his experiences in Macedonia in Israel Hayom, translated in part below:
"I arrived with an anesthesiologist at Central Hospital, where the largest number of injured people are being treated..... We joined the ward staff, and I discovered a group of warm, brave, and dedicated people who welcomed us .... it really warmed and opened my heart.... We spent the day working shoulder to shoulder with them... The extensive equipment that Hadassah donated was very important and helped greatly to fill the gaps in the level of dressings and fixations. The feeling is that there is definitely a way to help and be partners with the local teams in the treatment."
"After a full day in the hospital and ORs, we were invited for an official visit with the President of Macedonia.... We went through all the official ceremonies and then sat down for a conversation with the President. I was privileged to meet a modest and kind woman who told me about her origins and connection to Judaism, and her eyes really sparkled when she thanked us and saw how moved she was by the humanitarian gesture and our decision to drop everything and come to help during a crisis that was considered to be the worst the country had ever known. How typical that such a kind and humble people would be led by such a woman. From there we went to the Holocaust Museum, where we had a comprehensive tour and learned about the Jews of Macedonia and their glorious and sad past. It is a moving and strengthening experience at the same time."
Read the full story in Israel Hayom (in Hebrew).
