Sderot MDA worker treats own grandchild wounded by Kassam

This was not the first time that an MDA ambulance staffer in the town has had to treat a wounded relative.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
MDA sderot kassam (photo credit: Channel 10 [archive])
MDA sderot kassam
(photo credit: Channel 10 [archive])
Haim Ben-Shimol, who has worked as a Magen David Adom medic for 34 years, had a heartbreaking assignment on Tuesday - to treat his five-year-old granddaughter, Lior, and evacuate her to the hospital after she was moderately wounded by a Kassam rocket in Sderot, one of more than 20 rockets that landed there on Tuesday. Lior and the neighbor's son with whom she was playing when the rocket struck are used to running to the shelter when the city's Red Alert warning system sounds, but this time they couldn't reach it on time. Ben-Shimol, who has treated dozens of Kassam victims over the past seven years, was at the Sderot MDA station when his son called to say Lior had been wounded by shrapnel. He raced to the building and found his granddaughter covered in blood. "I started to wash her face to see where she was hurt," he said. He then bandaged her and took her to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. The upper floor of the building was destroyed in the attack, but both children were saved. Shrapnel was removed from various parts of Lior's body, and her fractured arm and leg were treated and put in casts. The MDA medic said that "as a founder of Sderot," he didn't want to leave the town with his family. "We will stay here. I love my work with MDA and Sderot," he declared. Ben-Shimol noted that prior to Tuesday's attack, Lior had undergone psychological treatment for anxiety caused by the constant rocket attacks. He said he tried to encourage her all time. This was not the first time that an MDA ambulance staffer in Sderot has had to treat a wounded relative. Two years ago, Yossi Cohen, who has worked with Ben-Shimon for 30 years, drove to the site of another Kassam attack - the home of his daughter, son-in-law and baby grandson at their home in Moshav Karmiya. "Every moment I'm on duty, I try to forget about the dangers," said Cohen. "I go to work and do what I have to. MDA is my home. I know that the time will come when we have happy days."