The white butterfly

Michelle Malkin and others have posted about Shiri Negari, the terror victim who was featured in a sign protesting Mahmoud Ahmadenijad’s invitation to speak at Columbia. The name brought back memories. While the terror war against Israel was going strong, I kept on reading new names of those killed, but there was something about her story that stuck with me: the white butterfly. The emergency physician who treated her, Dr. Avraham Rivkind wrote

Several weeks ago, I kneeled over a beautiful young woman named Shiri Nagari in the hospital parking lot. I asked her how she was feeling, and she answered that she was okay. But I felt that something was wrong.

What was wrong was

… her chest X-ray confirmed my hunch: a white butterfly on the black background. Shiri’s lungs had exploded. The same loud wave of air that smashes your eardrums can compress the air in your lungs and send it to destroy the organs in your abdominal cavity. Three concussive waves do lethal damage when a bomb explodes in an enclosed area. We rushed Shiri to our trauma operating room, always left empty for emergencies, and opened her up: blood in her chest and abdomen, a liver torn apart. No matter how much blood we pumped in, she couldn’t survive. I’m 52, and like most Israelis I serve in the army too. I have seen my share of tank injuries, unrelenting cancers and traffic accidents. Shiri’s death was the first time I ever cried at losing a patient.

All of her internal organs were crushed by the force of the blast. There was nothing the doctors could do. I know it’s a terrible way to remember someone, but when the terrorists were striking with regularity, it’s how I reacted. I could name too many of the victims of the Arab terror during the so called “Aqsa intifada.” Hopefully we’ve seen an end to those terrible times. But when some brilliant academic, politician, journalist or diplomat comes up with another idea how to empower the purveyors of terror they increase the risk that they could recur. With the Holiday of Sukkos on its way, I don’t want to end on such a negative note. Fortunately, Dr. Rivkind tells of some of his successes too.

Adi Hudja, only 14, had more than 40 metal objects in her legs from the suicide bombings on Ben Yehuda Street last December. She was bleeding uncontrollably from her wounds. On the spot, we came up with the idea of trying a coagulant for hemophiliacs still not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, certainly not approved for trauma. It costs $10,000 for a small bottle, but it worked. Six months later, she’s coming for therapy three times a week in Hadassah’s Mt. Scopus Rehab Center, and she’s learning to walk. Next year, maybe she’ll be able to go back to school too. She’s the same age as one of my daughters.

and …

In October 2000, Shimon Ohana, an 18-year-old border police officer, was declared dead in the field. But I asked the ambulance driver to bring him to the hospital. Some decisions are hard to make in the field. I uncovered him, we opened his chest cavity and began to work. He came back to life but remained in a coma for 17 days. At last, he woke up. Shimon is my continued reminder that we can’t give up hope. Today, he is a fully functioning young man who trains dogs and loves computers.

No we can’t give up hope. Even when seemingly every defensive action inspires questions of those who rarely question Israel’s enemies.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

white butterfly, Shiri Negari.