After two months of daily treks to the hospital, Reuven Natan Levi, a resident of Beitar Illit, never imagined he would go home with empty hands. But sadly, his fifth child Yair became Israel’s youngest coronavirus victim on Motzei Shabbos when he passed away at only two-months-old.
Yair was born with the rare autoimmune disorder, Eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (EGPA), and required complex surgery after birth but what ultimately took his life was the coronavirus.
“Despite the complexity of his illness, he could have lived with it,” Levi told Mynet Jerusalem. “But the coronavirus was deadly for him due to his medical background. The coronavirus destroyed every healthy part of him. We saw him deteriorate day after day. He was hospitalized in the pediatric ICU for coronavirus patients at Hadassah Ein Kerem.
The baby’s condition took a serious turn for the worse on Friday night at 2 a.m. and the hospital staff made extended efforts to resuscitate him. Sadly, after 40 minutes of resuscitation techniques, they were forced to declare his death.
“The scene was extremely difficult to bear,” Levi said. “It’s impossible to describe it in words.”
“I was used to seeing my son attached to machines and constantly hear devices beeping – but that night there was simply silence – my son lay there on the bed lifeless. I broke down and it was even harder for my wife. We couldn’t control our weeping.”
“We fought for my son’s life every day and every moment but Hakadosh Baruch Hu decided differently and took him.”
Yehi Zichro Baruch.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
Yehi ratzon milfanecha, shomei’a kol bichyos, shetasim dimoseinu b’nodcha lihyos, v’satzileinu mikol gzeiros kashos v’achzariyos, ki lecha l’vad eineinu teluyos.
As much as our hearts go out for the parents and family of the niftar, THIS IS FAKE NEWS!
The baby R’L died because it was his time. This was not some “premature” death. This is agenda driven propaganda to insist that the only people in the world who die are those with covid!
This displays a complete lack of bitachon. There is no such thing as a “שדרבר club”. On Rosh Hashana Hashem earmarked “who will live and who will die”
What Hashem does want is Teshuvah!
Deracheha – do you have any idea how insensitive your comment sounds? Everyone is niftar because it is his/her time – but I don’t see people making comments like the one you did when Rav Dovid Soleveitchik ZT”L or Rav Yitzchak Scheiner ZT”L were niftar – and they were already in their 90s. Instead, there was an outpouring of “Nafla Ateres Rosheinu” and the like.
You are also ignoring what Chazal said in Bava Kama, Daf Samach Amud Beis – when the mashchis is given license to destroy, he does not discriminate between a tzaddik and a rasha. If everyone has their set time and we have no influence, how do you explain this Gemara? So no, this is not “fake news” in any sense.
an Israeli Yid
Shame on you, Deracheha…! This is the denial that our society is exhibiting to justify the blatant ignoring of basic COVID precautions. Many in our society are guilty of retzichah, even if it’s beshogeg. The way to justify it is to say that the news is fake news and to act very frum and say Hashem decreed this anyway. Does that mean that a Rotze’ach is not responsible for his actions because the death wouldn’t have happened without Hashems decree?? How ignorant and wrong you are! It is this mindset that has made the virus worse in some frum communities than in many other communities worldwide. People say we just have to trust in Hashem and they go about business as usual while our fellow Yidden are getting seriously ill and dying R”L.
Why don’t you report on every child that died in the NICU. Why don’t you report on every death in the world. Apparently only people who can test for corona matter. It is very sad for this family. But it is no more national news than any other deaths. HASHEM created a world where there is suffering, and death, and children born sick. This death was not anyone’s fault, and no amount of precaution about Covid was able to prevent it.