Medicine is a bridge that connects cultures, beliefs and worldviews. Maybe even better than the UN. That's the only way to explain the scenario that happened a few days ago in a hospital in Georgia, where an Israeli doctor operated on patients from Jordan, Greece, and even Ukraine and Russia who are in a protracted war.
Prof. Mark Idelman, Director of Children's Orthopedics at Rambam, performs surgeries from time to time in various countries in Eastern Europe, with the aim of reaching a population that needs medical skills that do not exist in the region. Every time he performs a surgery marathon like this, patients arrive who were ordered ahead of time, from different countries. All of them Need orthopedic solutions and complex surgeries.
For just one weekend, Prof. Idelman, with the help of Dr. Pavel Kotlersky, a senior doctor in pediatric orthopedics at Rambam, and the local team, performed surgeries on children coming from Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, Greece and Jordan.
Against the background of the tensions with Jordan since 7/10/24, the situation in which an Israeli doctor performs surgery on a Jordanian patient is not self-evident. Prof. Idelman met S., 7 years old from Amman, about two and a half years ago, and since then her family members and the professor, who lives across the border, have maintained a continuous and good relationship. "I operated on the girl from Jordan last year at Rambam, after for a year we planned the procedure which was very complex and was supposed to help in the treatment of an orthopedic deformity that she suffered from all her life," explains Prof. Idelman, "the surgery then was successful, but follow-up operations were necessary after The rehabilitation period. Last August, the family was supposed to come to Rambam again, to finish the procedure, but they were a little worried because of the tensions. Finally, we agreed to meet in Georgia and perform the procedure there."
A procedure to repair erosion of the hip joint
One of the complex surgeries performed during the surgery marathon was a procedure to repair erosion of the hip joint. The patient, a 16-year-old girl from Ukraine, arrived in Georgia six months ago and waited there until Prof. Idelman's arrival, fearing that if she returned home she would not be able to return again.
"This procedure is actually a reconstruction of the hip joint using a method that is considered one of the most complex in the field of orthopedics," notes Prof. Idelman, "we cut the pelvis in three dimensions and move the joint for a better result. In the operating room, it doesn't really matter where I come from and where the patients are from. The division She is completely different. They are children who need help, and I am the one who can give them a better life."
When the patient from Jordan and the doctor from Israel met. This is how it looked about a year and a half ago in Rambam ► Watch
It's not often that a man who has served the country all his life will need an urgent operation, they will tell him to wait, but for a foreigner, worlds change because the foreigners pay the Rambam hospital a medical tourism rate and that is a lot of corruption money under the auspices of the law.