'Yediot Aharonot' journalist Zadok Yehezkeli, back from Georgia, will need two weeks of treatment and recovery at Hadassah.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHYediot Aharonot journalist Tzadok Yehezkeli was flown by air ambulance from Georgia to Jerusalem's Hadassah University Medical Center Wednesday, where he began to regain consciousness after being hit by a stray bullet on Tuesday while covering the ongoing fighting in Gori.
The 52-year-old suffered multiple chest and leg wounds and underwent lung surgery and the removal of his spleen in a Tbilisi hospital before receiving blood and plasma from Hadassah's chief of surgery, Prof. Avi Rivkind, and trauma unit and emergency medicine expert Dr. Micha Shamir, who flew to the hospital to escort him home.
This is not the first time Yehezkeli, who was observing food distribution to refugees when hit, has encountered violence through his work. A former sports reporter, he was once stabbed by a fan of a team he'd criticized in an article while attending a soccer game at Bloomfield Stadium.
Initially reported to be fighting for his life, Rivkind said Yehezkeli - a former Jerusalemite who lives in Ra'anana with his family - was out of danger but would probably need another two weeks of care at Hadassah.