On Tuesday, August 29, 2017, at 4:30 p.m., a routine school day ended for K., a 12-year-old from a moshav in the Shephelah. But a few minutes later, the day turned into a disaster that changed her life from end to end.
This is alleged in a tort lawsuit filed on her behalf by attorney Little Bieber Chaikin, of the Bieber-Lekoa-Chaikin-Harari law firm, against the cooperative association of the settlement where the accident occurred.
According to the prosecution, after the school day, K. and her friends went to the playground near her school, which was a regular meeting place for children her age. What seemed like an innocent and routine visit turned into a difficult, dramatic and life-threatening incident within minutes.
It all started when the children went to drink water from the water dispenser that was placed in the garden. As soon as K. touched the water fountain, she received an extremely strong electric current that slammed her hard to the floor. Her long hair wrapped around the metal pole, and as she struggled to breathe and felt unable to move, K. lost consciousness.
Her friends who were watching what was happening began to scream in panic, and one of the mothers present at the scene tried to rescue K., but the electric current pushed her back as well.
Within moments, K's two sisters arrived at the scene, after receiving a phone call from her panicked friends. The older sister did not hesitate and quickly pulled K while she was still unconscious, and she was also electrocuted during the rescue.
K.'s mother received the news of the incident in a hysterical phone call from her daughter. When she arrived at the scene, she was shocked to find her daughter lying on the ground, convulsing, completely unconscious.
The mother was also slightly injured trying to help her daughter. At the same time as an ambulance was called, those present received telephone instruction from the MDA call center on how to proceed until the emergency team arrived.
K. was evacuated in moderate condition to Shamir-Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where she was hospitalized in intensive care for three days.
Doctors diagnosed her with a head injury, abrasions to her scalp, erosion of the cornea of her left eye, severe burns, burn marks on her hand, and severe pain in her feet.
After three days of hospitalization, K. was discharged home, but the traumatic event was far from over for her.
It is alleged that in the months following the incident, K. began to deal with serious mental difficulties caused by the trauma she experienced. She suffered from severe nightmares that disturbed her sleep, frequent anxiety attacks, sudden outbursts of anger, complete avoidance of approaching water or electrical installations, a dramatic decrease in concentration in school, and increasing difficulty coping with everyday life.
During psychological therapy she underwent to deal with the consequences of the event, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Upon her enlistment in July 2024, K. continued to deal with the consequences of the trauma. A military psychiatrist determined that she suffered from adjustment disorder accompanied by partial post-traumatic stress disorder, and recommended that her mental profile be lowered to 64, while being assigned a role suited to her abilities.
Following the severe injury, both physical and mental, K. turned to attorney Little Bieber Chaikin, who filed a tort claim on her behalf against the Cooperative Association, the body responsible for maintaining the public areas in the settlement where the accident occurred, including the amusement park and its facilities.
The lawsuit claims that the accident occurred due to the cooperative's gross negligence, which included, among other things, the lack of proper maintenance of the fountain, failure to conduct periodic safety inspections, and failure to place warning signs that could have prevented the disaster.
Attached to the lawsuit was a detailed medical opinion from a psychiatric expert, who determined that K. was left with a permanent mental disability of 30% due to post-traumatic stress disorder, and recommended continued long-term psychological treatment after her discharge from the army.
According to the claim, K. also suffers from a scar left on her hand as a result of the burn, the treatment of which also requires reimbursement of past and future expenses.
According to Attorney Bieber Chaikin, although by law, the statute of limitations for personal injury is 7 years, since the plaintiff was a minor at the time of the accident, she is entitled to claim compensation for her damages until she reaches the age of 25 - seven years after becoming an adult, as long as her parents did not claim these rights on her behalf, while she was a minor.
In the lawsuit, which Attorney Bieber Chaikin recently filed with the Rishon LeZion Magistrate's Court, she asks the court to order the cooperative association of the moshav where the accident occurred to compensate K. for all her past and future damages, up to the limit of the court's authority - 2.5 million shekels.
A defense has not yet been filed.
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