Despite continued tension on the southwestern border, four Gaza children are receiving medical treatment in northern Israel. The children are all nephrology patients suffering from kidney insufficiency, and have been hospitalized for the last several months at the Children’s Hospital at Rambam Health Care Campus awaiting transplants.
Mohammed and Hadeel, both 12, have been in Israel for several months, with Hadeel’s brother Ahmad, 15, arriving recently in serious condition. The three have received hemodialysis treatments and peritoneal dialysis. The treatments have enabled the children to return to school for the first time in 3 years. Their parents have been taught by Rambam’s Pediatric Nephrology department to perform peritoneal dialysis at home, something which Arab hospitals in Gaza and Judea and Samaria do not assist in.
The fourth child, six-month-old Lian, is still being treated with hemodialysis.
Over the past year, the Pediatric Nephrology Unit has treated tens of Palestinian children from Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, who have arrived at Rambam Medical Center with various kidney diseases.