Chaim Ehrenfeld’s health journey was already a tough one. After years of fighting liver cirrhosis, he was finally approved for a transplant. The organs were accepted and it looked like everything was on its way up. Until, remember family and friends, he began behaving differently. Before long it was clear that a nightmare scenario had taken place: toxins had travelled to his brain, and he would be brain-damaged for life.
Now Chaim lives hooked up to a respirator, gets dialysis a few times a week, and requires round-the-clock care. Through it all, his wife Rachel has remained by his side. Every available moment that she has is spent either tending to her husband’s medical needs, or working. She works full time in a high school, and takes consulting clients at night. It’s not common to find a woman in her sixties who works every morning, afternoon, and night. But that is what Mrs. Ehrenfeld has been determined to do, to keep her family afloat.
This week, Rachel reached out to the public for help. At her age, mustering the stamina to pay for Chaim’s extensive medical treatments is becoming impossible. With debts stacked against them and a nearly unlivable level of stress, many readers have been moved by this tale of fear, hope, and shalom. Fear, for the future of a family overwhelmed by medical expenses and kept afloat by one brave woman. Hope, for a future of healing and calm. And shalom bayis, as a couple fights against all odds to support each other through some of life’s most unexpected challenges.
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