[COMMUNICATED CONTENT]

After tragedy struck, the K. family of Ofakim hoped they would never have to endure another one. But one month ago, the diagnosis came in: Fourteen month old Batsheva’s brain had stopped functioning.

—————–

Five years ago the K. family lost their six-year- old son in a tragic accident. An iron gate fell on his head at school and after two days of hanging between life and death, he passed away. This took a tremendous toll on the large family but with time they learned to cope with their heartbreaking loss.

Batsheva Esther, their fourteen months old daughter, was a normal, healthy child. Just six weeks ago her parents noticed that she wasn’t feeling well so they brought her to the family doctor. Expecting to hear the usual instructions; give fluids, get rest, and take medicine, the parents were shocked at the doctor’s reaction. Something was terribly wrong. He sent them straight to the emergency room.

What appeared to be a standard childhood virus was apparently not typical at all. From the E.R., Batsheva was sent to Schneider Hospital for further testing and evaluation. It was revealed that a dangerous yet asymptomatic virus had been present for some time in her body. There was no way to tell it was there until it was too late. Thank G-d, Batsheva’s heart is working, but for some time there had been a lack of oxygen flow to her brain, causing damage. Batsheva’s parents were panic stricken.

After sending her to yet another hospital for an additional week of evaluations, the doctors were still at a loss. They decided to send Batsheva to Alyn Hospital, a rehabilitation center in Jerusalem.

Batsheva’s parents are beside themselves with worry. Their constant, immediate fear is that of G-d forbid losing another child, something with which they are, unfortunately, too familiar. They also fear the unknown. Who knows what her condition will be? They travel back and forth from Ofakim to Jerusalem every day to be with Batsheva. Without a car, this journey takes them more than two and a half hours each way. Sometimes they rent a room in the hospital so they can be closer to her, but this is very expensive.

Understandably this has also been extremely hard on their other children. Though the parents try to arrange activities for them, they spend many days alone in the house, during their summer vacation. This intensifies the severe anxiety that they are already dealing with, due to the sudden sickness of their baby sister. Some of the children need to see therapists to help them deal with their worry.

In addition to the agonizing emotional stress that they are under, Batsheva’s parents are suffering terribly, financially. Medical bills, travel expenses, boarding expenses, the costs of hired help at home, etc, has all added up to many thousands of dollars of unexpected expenses.

We are therefore turning to you. Together, with your help, we can help little Batsheva and her family during these trying times. We can help offset some of their skyrocketing bills. We would like rent an apartment close to the hospital over the summer, so her parents can spend less time traveling and more time with all of their children, giving the family some sense of normalcy. Our goal is to lift them up emotionally and raise $7200 to assist them in getting through the summer and the chagim, which is a very expensive time. Let’s show Batsheva’s family that though they are suffering, we are here to help.

CLICK HERE to help this family