On August 9, 2001, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated at the Sbarro Pizzeria in the city’s downtown, leaving 15 people dead including five members of the Schijveschuurder family; both parents and three children.Meir Schijveschuurder, who experienced the attack as a 17 year old, expressed that the choice to dedicate a delivery room reflected the “circle of life,” the hospital stated. Among the 130 people injured were Meir and his sister Chaya, then 8, who were evacuated in critical condition to Bikur Cholim Hospital, which in 2012 became part of Shaare Zedek. Included in those who attended the emotional ceremony were medical personnel who triaged and treated the siblings, the hospital said. For the staff, including Chana Smadja, who was then working in the emergency room at Bikur Cholim and is today a senior nurse in Shaare Zedek’s infection control unit, the dedication was the first time reuniting with the family after they were released from the hospital.
“There was a smell of explosives in the air and the patients arrived on stretchers directly from the site, because it was too close to even put them in ambulances. The initial moments were chaotic, it took some time before we were able to realize the extent of the catastrophe and that we were treating multiple siblings whose parents had been killed,” Smadja recalled of the horrific day.
The hospital noted that both Meir and Chaya have close ties with its delivery room. The latter gave birth to her first child in the hospital last year. Meir’s wife, Nechama, works as a midwife in the hospital’s Wilf Woman and Infant Center. “Over the years we have always wanted to express our gratitude to the medical teams and we deeply appreciate the chance to be able to memorialize our family with this special delivery room that so symbolizes life," he said.