A 10-year-old boy who suffers from a birth defect that has kept him in hospital on a ventilator since birth was brought last Tuesday morning to the Kotel for a joyous birthday celebration made possible by United Hatzalah, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, and Herzog Hospital.
Herzog Hospital turned to United Hatzalah on behalf of the family of Yosef Yitzchak from Jerusalem to realize the family’s dream of helping their son, who has been bedridden in the hospital since birth, to pray at the Kotel. United Hatzalah contacted the Western Wall Foundation to check the feasibility of the request and make the necessary arrangements to transport the child in an ambulance directly to the Wall, with the ventilator and other medical devices he requires at all times.
On Tuesday morning, United Hatzalah EMT and ambulance driver David Salach and paramedic Ariel Shusheim drove the organization’s intensive care ambulance to Herzog hospital to pick up Yosef Yitzchak and his family, as well as the nurses who attend to him at the hospital.
The child was brought to the plaza where he was taken out of the ambulance on a stretcher and then brought to the Wall in a joyful procession. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Kotel Rabbi, came to bless Yosef Yitzchak on his birthday and gave him a Book of Psalms as a gift.
Yosef Yitzchak’s parents prayed for their son’s full recovery and thanked all the organizations for their help in realizing their dream.
