Neurosurgeons at Ziv Medical Center in Safed have saved the life of a six-year-old Syrian girl who was shot in the head and was rushed to Israel for emergency treatment, according to a report on Tuesday.
The girl, whose name has not been released, was originally operated on at a local hospital in Syria after the incident, but her condition began to deteriorate, according to Ynet.
The girl’s neurological responses worsened, she lost the ability to speak as the left side of her body also became paralyzed. As the prognosis worsened, the girl’s family turned to Israel in a last-ditch effort to save her life.
The girl’s grandmother accompanied her across the border with an Israel Defense Forces escort to the Ziv Medical Center. “The doctors there treated her like she was their daughter,” the grandmother said. “Without them, she would no longer be alive.”
Doctors in Syria reportedly did not think the girl, who was shot in the head while playing in the yard outside her home, would survive the operation. “It was a miracle she survived,” the grandmother said, “but when her condition deteriorated, the only option was to come to Israel,” she said, noting that she too had received medical attention in the Jewish state.
Dr. Samuel Tobias, head of the Neurosurgery Department at Ziv, said the doctors were not only trying to save the girl’s life, but also acutely aware of the potential impact of the surgery on her quality of life. “We saw a patient with a serious neurological injury … but we also saw she was just a girl, and we weren’t going to give up on her,” he said, according to Ynet.
The medical team at the center closely monitored the girl’s progress and was “moved by the improvement in her condition,” Tobias explained. “When she arrived, she didn’t speak or move. Today she’s smiling.”
The next stage of treatment, he said, “will be surgery to insert an implant that will complete the missing part of the skull to improve her mobility as much as possible.”
He concluded by saying the team at Ziv is interested in saving lives, and does not care what a person’s country of origin is.
