Meet the Kids
ALYN betters the lives of children of all backgrounds, religions and nationalities.
YASSIN'S STORY
Before becoming a mother, Nadia studied education and enrolled in special education courses. She remembers thinking, “If I had a child with special needs, how would I care for him?” This once theoretical question became real and very personal.
Nadia’s question changed to “How can I give Yassin the ability to take care of himself? How can I enable him to play alone with his friends as his brothers do?” Nadia wanted to help her son to become independent like every mother wishes for their children. READ MORE
GINA SHAFER: PARENT SPOTLIGHT
I can't say enough about how grateful we are for what ALYN did for our son, after his brain surgery to remove a malignant brain tumor and the subsequent onset of Posterior Fossa Syndrome, a condition that often sets in after surgery of the cerebellum. He had less functioning than a baby, including loss of speech, inability to swallow, and complete loss of movement
When our son first arrived at ALYN, he needed to be regularly transported to Hadassah Hospital for critical cancer treatments and return to ALYN for rehabilitation. ALYN gave him a special wheelchair that was adapted for his body and he was able to receive his cancer treatments and rehabilitation at the same time – something that is not often possible in many hospitals around the world. READ MORE
HAREL'S STORY
Art, running, Spiderman and playing with friends are highlights of Harel’s life just like any child. Thanks to ALYN Hospital, Harel is enjoying these things.
In an unexpected turn of events near the end of an otherwise normal pregnancy, Harel was born with a bacterial infection. He developed a fever and was put on a ventilator. His parents didn’t know what would happen. Eventually, this treatment helped to stabilize his condition and his family was able to take him home.
However, by age 2, Harel was not walking and his mother noticed he would not put pressure on his left foot to stand. Doctors discovered his left leg was slightly shorter than his right and that his knees were angling in toward each other. His parents were told the bacterial infection he had at birth inhibited some growth, and that without surgery – and likely a series of surgeries until he reached adulthood – his ability to walk at all would be very limited. READ MORE
BREATHING TOGETHER: YAMAN'S STORY
Baby Yaman was able to go home for the first time since his birth thanks to an innovative brain catheterization through his umbilical cord at Hadassah Hospital followed by successful Respiratory Rehabilitation at ALYN Hospital. Yaman was born in April. A scan during pregnancy discovered a malformation in a blood vessel in his brain and his parents were told he would not survive. However, hours after his birth he was whisked into surgery in an effort to prevent serious and life-threatening complications from the malformation. His umbilical cord was deliberately left after birth to enable this pioneering procedure. After four months at Hadassah Hospital, Yaman is now receiving long-term intensive rehabilitation at ALYN in the Respiratory Rehabilitation Department. He is communicating with his parents and is able to go outside the ward with them! Yaman’s family and four older siblings are grateful to the committed ALYN team and eagerly waited for his arrival home with the use of a portable ventilator. READ MORE
ALIZA'S STORY
At the age of three, Aliza came to live at ALYN Hospital, which was then primarily a long-term orthopedic hospital offering intensive rehabilitation services. Back then, there were three long-term departments, each with approximately 24 children. Aliza remembers that while she missed her family terribly, even then she was grateful that ALYN took such good care of her and provided the therapeutic treatments she needed, including physical, occupational and speech therapies, as well as hydrotherapy.
Aliza shared, “doctors used to encourage families not to deal with their children with disabilities and to put them in an institution. Now the norm is to keep them home and this is on the one hand very hard for the parents, but very good for the children and for society.” READ MORE
RON'S STORY
Ron’s birth started off as a typical delivery but quickly, an emergency c-section was necessary. He was not breathing or moving. His lungs had not fully developed. Ron was in shock.
Genetic testing showed that Ron had an unusual genetic mutation. Genetic mutations can either be inherited or newly acquired. In Ron’s case, he was found to have a combination of these types of mutations, which is extremely rare. As a result, it is unknown what the outcome of his condition will be.
At three-months old, Ron arrived at ALYN Hospital. He depended on a ventilator 24/7. He was physically very weak. Â READ MORE
ELAZAR AND HIS PARENTS RECEIVE TOOLS FOR AT-HOME CARE
On April 30, 2021, then 12-years old, Elazar Berger was crushed under the crowd of people at the tragic event in Meron, Israel. He was the youngest survivor and the first victim to be evacuated to a hospital. He spent more than one month in the ICU. When he was finally discharged from the medical hospital, he was transferred to ALYN Hospital for rehabilitation.
Elazar spent the following three months as an in-patient at the ALYN Respiratory Rehabilitation Department with his parents at his bedside. He was dependent on respiratory assistance and was in need of being weaned off of pain killers, along with facing several physical challenges. The goal was to wean Elazar off the respiratory aids and the medication, while also following an intense rehabilitative therapy protocol. READ MORE
ALYN ENABLES MUHI'S REUNION WITH HIS FATHER IN THE UAE
Mohammed, known as Muhi to his friends and family, has spent most of his life at ALYN Hospital. He is 22-years old, on chronic ventilation and uses a powered wheelchair. He is able to use his hands and fingers, and is able to speak, but his speech is very difficult for most people who do not know him to understand.
For many years, Muhi had not been in close touch with his father, who lives in Abu Dhabi. They were able to reconnect several years ago, when Muhi’s father sent him a smartphone, allowing Muhi to spend time with his father and younger brothers on video calls. At that time, there was no travel possible between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.
ALYN SUCCESS STORY: LEONARD ARIEL
Leonard Ariel Andre’ev was born in November 2020 at only 27 weeks, weighing less than two pounds. He had a twin brother who died within a month due to medical complications.
Leonard Ariel was respirated from birth, and there were long periods that he was anesthetized and respirated due to an exacerbated lung disease. Breathing for him was terribly painful, leading to intensive treatment with steroids, painkillers and drugs. (He would later need drug-treatment therapy from ALYN to wean him off the medications.)
At the age of five months, in April 2021, Leonard Ariel underwent tracheal surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center. Two months later, the family met Dr. Eliezer Be’eri, Director of the Respiratory Rehabilitation Department at ALYN Hospital and Leonard Ariel began treatment at ALYN in November 2021.
A BOY, A BIKE RIDE AND BESHERT
Sometimes, events in our life are touched by “beshert” – the notion that some things are predestined or meant to be. When Hovav Landau started doing the Wheels of Love ride for ALYN Hospital in 2005, he would have never imagined that someday it would be his own child who would benefit from ALYN’s excellence in pediatric rehabilitation Combining bike riding with the mitzvah of tzedakah is something he looks forward to year after year. So, without thinking twice, he contacted Dr. Maurit Beeri, Director General of ALYN Hospital, and asked if Meori could be admitted there for the duration of his rehabilitation process, to which Dr. Beeri agreed. In Hovav’s words: “To us, it was clear we were going home.”
YITZHAK: A MOTHER'S THANKS
Raizy Wachsman wrote two whole pages of thanks to the staff at ALYN Hospital after her son, Yitzhak, had been referred to ALYN for rehabilitation in the fall of 2020 after being hit by a car while crossing a busy road. Yitzhak had sustained multiple injuries, including a rib fracture and a severe fracture in his femur. His leg had to be stabilized with metal rods into the bone from both sides of his knee to the pelvis. While his rehabilitation process originally began at the local Kupat Cholim, Yitzhak was soon after referred to ALYN. “From our first meeting at ALYN with Dr. Michal, we immediately felt assured that Yitzi’s case would really be taken to heart!” said Raizy.
After many months of slow progress, after Purim, Yitzhak had surgery to remove the rods and he is now slowly regaining movement and independence. READ HERE
RAZ BEN DAVID:
FORMER ALYN PATIENT, STRIKING A POSITIVE CHORD
Raz Ben David experienced a spinal cord infarction, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The doctors who diagnosed him at a general hospital thought the damage was so severe that he would not walk again. The following month, Raz was referred to ALYN Hospital for rehabilitation. Turns out he is one of only 33 people in the world who have had this specific type of spinal cord infarction. As far as we know, no other known patient with this specific condition is reported to have mobility except for Raz.
At ALYN, he received intense physical therapy, hydrotherapy and occupational therapy, as well as psychological support for both him and his parents. Raz’s father says about the staff at ALYN, “The people here are amazing, truly amazing. They are giving, caring, genuinely concerned and do their very best.” READ MORE
SHIMON’S JOURNEY TO RECOVERY
Shimon is almost 12 years old and is a triplet! He was born healthy and remained healthy until he started having back pains earlier this year. After going to the doctor and having a number of tests including an MRI, the doctors discovered that he had a malformation of the blood vessels leading to his spinal cord. Due to complications of the surgery, he was left paralyzed from the waist down (paraplegic).
When Shimon came to ALYN Hospital in April 2019 (just a few days before Pesach), he was not able to hold his own body weight to sit up at all. He needed a specialized wheelchair that supported his entire body in a sitting position.
Today, after a tremendous amount of effort working in various therapies, especially physiotherapy, Shimon is now able to use a regular wheelchair. He also has intensive occupational therapy, hydrotherapy and psychological treatment, and he learns in the ALYN Hospital Learning Center within the Rehabilitation Department to help him stay on target with his progress in school. His treatments are augmented by using medical clowns, virtual reality, therapeutic gardening, animal assisted therapy, art and the therapeutic sports center.
In addition to all of the above, the ALYN Hospital staff of the Learning Center as well as the social worker reached out with advice and guidance to the staff of Shimon’s school regarding what adaptations would be needed in order to re-admit him – with his wheelchair – this fall so that he can go back to his class, his teachers and his friends. He still has a long road of continued rehabilitation ahead of him, but Shimon and his family can take comfort in the knowledge that they can rely on the ALYN Hospital staff to be there for them the entire way.
MEET TZLIL
Tzlil was seriously injured in a car accident. She arrived at ALYN on a respirator and in a coma 10 months ago. Even veteran ALYN staff, who had seen miraculous recoveries against all odds, had a bad feeling that this time the cruel reality was that this young girl would never come out of the coma and would remain in nursing care for good. Indeed, over the first few months, Tzlil did not respond at all despite the various therapies and medications. Her days were spent in agonizing discomfort, while her dedicated family surrounded her with love, never giving up. Gradually, the discussion turned to the possibility of transferring Tzlil to a nursing home.
Surprisingly, four months after the accident, Tzlil began to respond to music, to speech and to touch, although she was still unable to express herself in any way. Once she started responding, improvement was slow but unremitting. I have known Tzlil and her parents throughout the entire 10 months. I have seen how they have reached out for support from different parts of their community. How they have recruited top musicians and songwriters to come to her bedside, and how her first responses were to familiar songs, although we still did not hear her voice.
Tzlil is still making progress, now talking fluently. She still requires a lot of assistance in activities of daily living, and is still working to improve through multidisciplinary therapies by our Brain Injury Team. She ambulates in a powered wheelchair and will probably be a day patient at ALYN for months to come. The road ahead for Tzlil is still long, but she will fight alongside us to earn her right to her own voice and opinion and ability to function in a world that won’t give up on children like her.
GHARAM’S VR SUCCESS
Gharam, a 14-year-old from Jerusalem, has a simple wish: to be able to walk normally and go out with her friends, like she used to before she was badly injured in a car accident.
After a complex surgery and three months in a cast, Gharam visits ALYN Hospital for weekly occupational therapy sessions. She spends some of her time in the Virtual Reality (VR) room using products developed by Senserum, an ALYNnovation portfolio company.
The VR room is inviting and welcoming. Once the children put on their VR headsets, they are transported to a world devoid of disabilities and difficulties. Instead, they are immersed in a game or action that requires mobility. It’s hard work, but they WANT to do it so they can win the game or succeed at the task they’ve been given.
“It’s fun for me and I enjoy the VR therapy,” Gharam says with a smile. “Some of the other therapies are boring or painful. In the VR room I move much more because I forget the pain and concentrate on the games and activities.”
And Gharam? She is working hard toward her goal of walking without crutches. “In the VR room I am walking much better. I can’t wait to walk everywhere without pain, get back to school and hang out with my friends”