Druze doctor reveals: Syrian wounded evacuated to Rambam are family members he never met

Last night (Monday), a woman and two children from the Druze community who were injured in the Sweida area in Syria last week - while Syrian forces attacked Druze communities - were evacuated to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

The family members were shot - the father of the family was killed, the woman was moderately injured, as was her 16-year-old daughter. The youngest son, 6, was more seriously injured and suffered multiple fractures and a gunshot wound.

After being hospitalized for several days at a local clinic, where their condition only worsened, the injured family members were transferred to Rambam for treatment of their injuries.

When one of the brothers who received them in the shock room, a Druze himself, a resident of one of the northern communities, saw the last names of the injured, he remembered that a doctor in one of the surgical departments at Rambam had the same last name. The doctor who was on night shift was called to the shock room - and a brief and emotional investigation revealed that these were relatives whom he had of course never met in person, and had only heard about from his father's stories.

"Dad came to Israel in 1947, as a very young man, but he left his entire family behind - brothers, sisters, parents," the doctor from Rambam said excitedly. "He always told us about the village he came from and the family, and we received indirect messages from them over the years, but of course we never met. Suddenly I'm standing in a shock room talking to a direct relative with the same name as mine. I felt my hair stand on end with excitement."

The injured mother, whose details are of course confidential, said yesterday following the meeting in the shock room with the Israeli relative she had never met: "I felt like I was in a place that was like home - with my family. The tension of being in a hospital in a foreign country has decreased, thank God. My hope is that Israel will help me and all the Druze. What is happening in Syria has not stopped and we have no expectation from any other party to help."