Critically injured soldier smiling, communicating 1 year after attack

On Sunday, Nathaniel’s mother Judi Felber told The Jerusalem Post that her son has made good progress since regaining consciousness.

By JEREMY SHARON
Nathaniel Felber (photo credit: Courtesy)
Nathaniel Felber
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Almost one year after the Netzah Yehudah battalion soldier Nathaniel Felber was critically wounded in a terrorist attack outside the Givat Assaf settlement outpost, his mother has said her son’s situation is much improved, although a long process of rehabilitation still remains.
Felber was shot in the head outside the West Bank settlement on December 13. The bullet left the Silver Spring, Maryland-born soldier in a coma and fighting for his life.
He was transferred to a rehabilitation center in the country’s central district in February but remained in a coma for several months after that, only regaining consciousness gradually.
On Sunday, Nathaniel’s mother Judi Felber told The Jerusalem Post that her son has made good progress since regaining consciousness.
She said that her family has experienced a very difficult year but that they had been greatly helped by the many people who had given them support and assistance, many of whom they had never met or known before the attack.
“It’s been a really, really hard year of roller coaster emotions and activities,” she said, noting that he was injured a week after his sister got engaged.
“I look back to where I was on December 12, the day before the attack, and it’s not the same place at all. But I’ve made wonderful friends. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve seen the goodness in people that I had no idea.”
Judi Felber said that her daughter had got married two weeks ago, with Nathaniel in attendance, and that people who she had not known less than a year ago were guests at the wedding because of how close her family had become to those who have given their support.
“At the wedding there were so many people who if we had had the wedding a year ago we wouldn’t have even known or invited them,” she said.
Judi said that the assistance provided to her family by friends and strangers alike “has been amazing. There’s no way to describe it,” and also praised Felber’s friends from his IDF unit and his yeshiva for giving her son strong support.
“His friends are amazing. They have been so helpful and so friendly,” said Judi, and said that her son is visibly helped and encouraged by his friends’ visits.
“Nathaniel smiles when they come, I think he enjoys the visits. They make jokes with him, they make him feel like he’s part of everything, they treat him like he’s a regular guy and he’s part of everything and that’s really helpful.
“They take him in his wheelchair, they dance and sing with him, they make him feel like he’s part of everything, they treat him like a normal guy.”
Judi said that since coming out of his coma, Nathaniel is now sometimes able to answer to yes or no questions, he can smile, and make hand gestures such as a thumbs up, although he still cannot speak.
She said however that the family is hopeful he will be able to recover his speech in time.
“Nathaniel has physical therapy and occupational therapy every day, and communication therapy nearly every day,” she added.
On Monday, he is scheduled to undergo a procedure in a Jerusalem hospital which it is hoped will prepare him for another operation in several months time when a synthetic material will be used to replace parts of skull which were harmed in the shooting attack.
“He still has a long way to go,” Judi said.
She added that once the operation to restore the impacted parts of his skull has been successfully performed, his family is hopeful that he will be able to leave the rehabilitation center and return to live in Ra’anana where the rest of the family live.


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