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The heads of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s Division of Nursing and Health Professions and representatives of Hadassah paid tribute in a series of ceremonies on September 30 to the outstanding nursing staff from both hospital campuses.
“No matter what, you are the heart and soul,” Hadassah Offices in Israel Executive Director Gidon Melmed told the staff selected for prizes supported by the generosity of Hadassah donors. “Thank you, in the name of 300,000 women and men who are always asking what more they can do on your behalf.”
Division of Nursing Director Dr. Rely Alon took the opportunity to tell her team, “We are the only hospital in the world to have something as unique as Hadassah women.”
The first ceremony was dedicated to those who went above and beyond during the almost two years of fighting since the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023.
Among them is nurse Efrat Alper from the Swartz Center for Emergency Medicine at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem. She created an ad hoc psychiatric support system for the war wounded, something subsequently adopted by hospitals around Israel.
Her ER room colleague, Deputy Head Nurse Ahman Idkeidek, volunteered to work extra shifts with the outbreak of fighting, regularly filling in for staff members whose partners were called up for IDF reserve duty. As a non-Jew, he offered to relieve Jewish staff members so they could be at home with their children for religious festivals.
From Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus, Gandel Rehabilitation Center Department Deputy Head Nurse Sarit Mazhbits Sonnenshein was described by colleagues as a “beautiful a ray of sunshine, as her surname suggests.” She was available 24/7 after October 7 for each wounded soldier and others in her care. “Even today, when we only have two soldiers in the department, they get exactly the same attention as on day one.”
The second ceremony included a new heartrending element with awards to four exceptional nurses in the names of two fallen spouses of Hadassah nurses, who lost their lives during active service in the wake of October 7. Maternity nurse Anguaz Zagaya’s husband, Daniel, and Meir, husband of hematology nurse Michal Berkowitz, were killed in Gaza.
Each recipient paid tribute to the artistic, technological and charitable achievements of Daniel and Meir in their all-too-short lives and promised to emulate them in their daily work on both hospital campuses.
