Following a serious injury in the heart of Gaza, orthopedic surgeries on his hands and feet at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem and rehabilitation at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, Saar just wants to go back to fighting in the field. “But first I have to win my war in rehabilitation."
When the sirens went off in central Israel at the start of the war on Saturday, October 7, Saar, 27, began packing a bag even before being called up for reserve duty. He equipped himself, put on his uniform and arrived at one of the training bases in the south.
"We trained for several weeks, and when the ground incursion began, my team from the 12th Brigade and I entered the northern Gaza Strip." There they encountered dozens of terrorists. "The team and I fought while around us were tanks and helicopters. There was an atmosphere of war and everything that it entails. I was very vigilant throughout the mission."
They arrived at a building controlled by Hamas. “Suddenly, a missile was fired at us, right in my direction. I jumped to the side to save myself." Saar was seriously injured, with shrapnel sustained in four limbs and severe blood loss. "I was wounded in both arms and legs. They put five tourniquets on me to stop the bleeding and evacuated me by helicopter to Hadassah Ein Kerem."
Saar arrived at the hospital's trauma unit in serious condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator, and the team that received him immediately began to take action to stabilize his condition.
He underwent two orthopedic surgeries to treat injuries to his hands and legs. According to Dr. Madi El-Haj, who operated on him, "Saar arrived in serious condition with significant shrapnel wounds to his arms and legs. The injuries included open wounds, open wrist fractures and tendon tears." In the surgeries, doctors repaired the damaged tendons, cleaned the open wounds from shrapnel and set the fractures. "Some of the shrapnel was very close to the nerves, and we surgically removed them successfully, without nerve damage," said Dr. El-Haj.
After his surgeries, Saar moved to the rehabilitation department at Hadassah Mt. Scopus, where he undergoes occupational therapy to strengthen hand function and physical therapy treatments due to leg injuries. Saar says that the rehab process is not as simple as he thought, and it is a journey he is embarking on with determination. "I thought that after the injury, I would give myself a few days to heal and then go back to fight with my friends," he said. "I want to go back to fighting in the field, but now I understand that this is, first and foremost, my battle for myself to return to full functioning."
Hagit Gal, an occupational therapist at the rehab department who treats Saar, said, "Saar arrived with severe injuries to all four limbs, and because of the limitations of the injury, we worked according to an organized protocol so as not to cause further damage to the muscles or tendons." At the beginning of the rehabilitation process, Saar was limited in movement. Still, with his training and perseverance, he can already do things he could not do before.
"I can already drive, which is a dream,” said Saar. “I feel a real improvement when it comes to the movement of my arms and legs, and it gives me a sense of relief that there is light at the end of the tunnel."
Many war wounded undergo the long and challenging process of returning to life as they knew it before the injury, with a multidisciplinary professional team. On how Saar and other patients cope with their physical limitations and the expectation of a speedy recovery, Gal said, "The real coping here is the gap between the patient's expectation that the process will be short and fast and the real process, which is slow and often restrictive so as not to create additional damage. The physical limitations that the injury leaves with it cause the patient to depend on others, and it is tough to cope with for an adult who was independent and healthy."
"From the beginning of the rehabilitation process until now, there has been a real improvement in my functioning,” said Saar. “I want to keep improving to get back and fight with my friends and win."