Israeli doctors save Syrian girl after security services smuggle out family bone marrow donor

Israeli doctors save Syrian girl after security services smuggle out family bone marrow donor

In late May 2015, I wrote about my visit to Ziv Medical Center in Safed (Tsfat), northern Israel, which serves as a center for medical assistance given Syrians, Meet an Israeli Doctor Saving Syrian Lives and Limbs:

Ziv is only 30 kilometers, a 40 minute drive, from the Syrian border.

Ziv has received some publicity the past two years for its treatment of Syrians. While some of the Syrians seeking help are not direct casualties of the fighting, such as expectant mothers, almost all have traumatic wounds as a result of the war.

Almost all of them are men of fighting age, but it is a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as far as the hospital goes. The decision whether to admit people into the country for medical treatment, whether to treat them at the border, and whether to transport them to a place like Ziv is a decision made by the military.

When the military does bring a wounded person to Ziv, the person is treated as any other patient…

Eleven Syrian children have been born at Ziv. The expectant mothers somehow made their way to the border, and were brought to Ziv. They come alone, without any other family members, and are returned when medically safe with baby packages donated by the local community.

[Dr. Alexander Lerner, specialist in treating limb casualties]

Rambam Hospital in Haifa, to the west along the coast in northern Israel, also is a medical center to which Syrians are brought.

One then 5-year old Syrian girl received attention last spring because of the unusual circumstances of her treatment at Rambam, including a clandestine security operation to locate a family member to act as a blood marrow donor:

The girl arrived at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa in recent weeks with very serious wounds that she received after finding herself caught in a firefight between rival militias, according to an exclusive report Wednesday night on Channel 10.

Some two weeks after she arrived at the hospital, after her wounds had nearly healed, Rambam doctors discovered the young girl had cancer.

They refused to release her, insisting that they could not let her cancer go untreated. The girl had grown used to the hospital, and had friends among the other children being treated there, they said.

Security officials agreed.

And so a search began for a bone marrow donor, a search that led to a relative living in a Middle Eastern country designated an “enemy state” under Israeli law, a designation that prevented the relative from entering Israel.

It was at this point that Israel’s security services stepped in, mounting a secret operation in the enemy country that helped smuggle the relative out of that country and into Israel.

The relative arrived in Israel on Monday, Channel 10 reported. Both child and donor are now quarantined at the hospital, where the girl is expected to undergo a first round of treatment this month.

Nearly every detail about the girl’s identity and the operation to locate and retrieve her relative are classified.

[Image via Rambam Hospital]

The girl, now recovered, was recently released from the hospital with her mother accompanying her, and returned to Syria. Israel Channel 10 news has a video report in Hebrew (video also at the link)(translation via Google Translate):

Seven months ago IDF forces Yasmin alone brought the Syrian border secretly straight to Rambam Hospital, after a series of tests, it was found that Jasmine has leukemia. Yasmin treatment process was not used, the medical team needed a bone marrow donor family members who were in Syria.

Under heavy fighting in Syria, security forces came to the family and smuggled to Israel tubes wrapped in cloth from which blood donor is selected. Together with her mother secretly smuggled Jasmine’s brother also selected as a contributor. At the end of the operation – performed bone marrow transplantation.

During recovery, heavily guarded by the IDF, Jasmine spent weeks in isolation, the hospital did not remain indifferent to her condition and gave her activities and movies, while the peak was taken for a walk on the beach.

While the report is in Hebrew, Avi Mayer provided a description in English on Twitter:

Channel 10 reveals that a six-year-old Syrian girl has been treated for cancer in Israel for the past seven months; today she returned home.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

The girl, Yasmine, was taken by Israeli forces from the border with Syria to Haifa's Rambam Hospital and was found to have blood cancer.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

Yasmine required a bone marrow transplant, so Israeli forces covertly tracked down her family in Syria and spirited a sample back to Israel.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

Yasmine remained under the IDF's protection during her recovery; the hospital arranged activities for her, including a trip to the beach.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

Today, a healthy Yasmine returned home to Syria wearing a white dress and a crown and clutching a tablet computer and a new backpack.

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

Yasmine's mom: "I would be lying if I said I expected the good treatment and generosity and these countless acts of rare humanitarianism."

— Avi Mayer (@AviMayer) August 22, 2016

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