Seriously hurt soldiers from Gaza war have improved enough to leave Soroka for rehab

A total of 200 soldiers were treated at the Beersheba hospital, with 22 of them in moderate condition.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Hospital generic 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Hospital generic 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Ten of the 11 IDF soldiers who were seriously wounded in Operation Cast Lead and hospitalized at Soroka University Medical Center have recovered, and some have already been transferred to other facilities for rehabilitation. A total of 200 soldiers were treated there, with 22 of them in moderate condition, the Beersheba hospital said on Thursday. Liel Cohen, a 22-year-old soldier who was evacuated from the battlefield on January 4 and admitted with severe head wounds, underwent lifesaving surgery at Soroka. He was unconscious in the neurosurgery department for two weeks and underwent additional operations. Now able to walk and talk, he was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital on Thursday after receiving farewells from neurosurgery head Dr. Avi Cohen and senior staffers Dr. Yisrael Melamed and Dr. Yuval Supero, who treated him. Givati Brigade soldier Ben Buchnik, the last soldier to be admitted in serious condition after leaving the Gaza front, was evacuated on the final day of the war and admitted to the intensive care unit. About 24 hours later, his condition improved and he regained consciousness. Nine days after that, he was well enough to move to rehabilitation at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer. An unnamed Golani Brigade soldier who suffered severe injuries to his head and arm when the IDF began its Gaza campaign has been moved to the Beit Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital in Ra'anana. Another soldier, whose heart was hit by shrapnel near his aorta, underwent rare surgery to remove the piece of metal, which he was presented along with a video of the operation as a memento. Fallah Alhayeb, the officer who was brought last week to Soroka after his vehicle drove over a mine near the Kissufim crossing, underwent several operations on his lower limbs, and he has regained consciousness. The only seriously wounded soldier remaining at the Beersheba hospital is Dvir Bar-Hai, who is in the intensive care unit. A small boy, Orel Yelizarov, who was seriously hurt by a rocket in Beersheba, is also hospitalized but improving. He is a candidate for release to a rehabilitation facility.