Eitan Biran, 5, who lost his parents, brother, and great-grandparents in the cable car disaster in Italy on Sunday, was likely saved by his father’s embrace seconds before the crash, according to a report in the Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The report said that according to the hospital, Eitan’s father, Amit, z’l, likely saw the cable snap and pulled Eitan into a tight embrace, which partially protected him from the force of the impact. Eitan was the only survivor of the crash.
Although Eitan is still in critical condition, doctors are amazed by Eitan’s survival. Prof. Franca Fioli of Turin’s Regina Margherita hospital told Ynet that according to the MRI, Eitan “does not seem to have suffered brain damage and his spinal cord wasn’t damaged.” He broke multiple bones in the crash but the doctors are optimistic about his recovery.
The bodies of the five victims are being flown to Israel on Wednesday afternoon. The father and siblings of Eitan’s mother, Tal Peleg-Biran, z’l, flew to Italy together with Amit’s brother, and went to visit Eitan at the hospital and gathered the personal belongings of their loved ones. They will fly back with the bodies to Israel on Wednesday for the levayos. Eitan’s aunt Aya, who lives in Italy, will remain by his bedside.
Israeli Consul in Rome Eitan Avraham told Ynet that the hospital provided the family with a psychologist and a doctor.
“It was very hard,” Avraham said. “I don’t usually accompany the family inside the hospital but I couldn’t leave them alone. I went in, I cried, we broke down. It was very difficult.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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Italy has let in a lot of Islamists to add to their already robust numbers of antisemites. Maybe taking it from +/-1 15% of Italians who are zealot antisemites (steady for thousands of years) to 20% or even 25% of Italians today who are zealot antisemites. Could one of them, fed a diet of Jew-hate by the media lately not have been able to control his or herself and have sabotaged the cable car upon seeing Jewish names or hearing Hebrew spoken? We’ll never know, and shouldn’t assume because none of us can investigate and none of us were there, but the timing coinciding with a terrible anti-Jewish media blitz the likes of which the world likely hasn’t seen in a decade (but the unique global obsession and demonization of Madoff, Epstein, Weinstein, MeToo, Franken, neocon, Marxist came close even long after their crimes) would make it hard for a dedicated antisemite not to do something.