What Brought You to Nursing?

In my position as the commander of the second medical unit to which unfit soldiers are attached in Tel Hashomer, I was sent on one of the Saturdays as an on-call to Belinson Hospital. A soldier in training of a commando unit of the Israeli Air Force had a car accident when he fell asleep at the wheel. They brought him; he was anesthetized, still breathing, paralyzed from the neck down, with a fracture neck vertebra. His family members arrived, Belinson Director of the Neuro – Surgical Department was abroad.

The family requested that their son be operated on by Prof. Nof from Sheba. The operation must be performed immediately in order to save

what is possible of motor skills and sensation. I drove with the medical imaging of the soldier to Prof. Nof's house, as I was in uniform. I knocked on the door and said "There is a combat soldier in Belinson who will be Quadriplegic (paralyzed in all limbs) if not operated immediately!" An hour later, the soldier was on the operating table in Sheba.

After a long rehabilitation period, the soldier reached a state where he is paraplegic (partially paralyzed). In any case, there is a difference between being paralyzed in four limbs, and moving your hands! This story is the essence of our meaning as commander of the second medical unit to which unfit soldiers are attached, the way we are perceived and our enormous impact on human life.