UPDATE - Rivkah bat Yael

shabbatiscoming

Sat, Nov 06 2010, 1:56 pm

Rivka bat Yael Razel Update: A Walking Miracle–Literally

6 months ago, Israel let out a collective gasp when Rivka bat Yael Razel, the daughter of singer Yonatan Razel and his wife Yael, fell from a ladder on Israel Independence Day and arrived comatose at Hadassah Hospital.

That nightmarish night, Rivki’s doctors warned her parents that she might not survive those first 24 hours. This month, those same doctors told her parents that Rivki is nothing short of a walking medical miracle.

Jewish moms, Rivki’s parents thank you from the bottom of their hearts for all of your prayers!

And now, an update on Rivki’s condition. At present, Rivki’s talking is still slow and slurred, but it gets more fluent month by month. In terms of intelligence, Rivki is back to 100%, which is truly phenomenal considering the severity of the brain injury she suffered.

Every week, Rivki’s teacher, Rachel, tutors Rivki in the material the girls are learning in kindergarten so that she won’t be too far behind when she rejoins the gan (my daughter, Moriah, is Rivki’s classmate and good friend). Rivki’s parents are hoping that within a few months Rivki will be up to rejoining Rachel’s kindergarten several hours a week.

Ganenet Rachel already set up a drawer for Rivki as she did for all of this year’s students and Rivki is on the official kindergarten student list. My Moriah and all of the girls are so eager to have Rivki back in gan… That will be such an incredible day. To bring Moriah to kindergarten, and to have Rivki there playing with her cousin, Miriami, just like before the accident.

Rivki is still hospitalized at Alin Hospital where she undergoes an intense daily rehab regimen (Rivki told me that she enjoys hydrotherapy at Alin’s pool the best). Every weekday, Rivki returns home from Alin in the late afternoon, and her parents transport her after she falls asleep back to the hospital so that she will be eligible to continue the full schedule of inpatient treatments.

The most amazing aspect of Rivki’s progress, in my personal opinion, is that Rivki was always a girl with a ton of spark (a true Razel). And when I accompanied Rivki and her mother to their family shul the other day, I saw that while Rivki’s talking and walking are still shaky, her spark is totally back in full force. Thank God!

And the big news this week is that Rivki just started walking on her own! Rivki has been walking with support since the end of the summer, but this past Shabbat she started walking unassisted around her home!

Rivki’s physical therapist with 30 years of experience confessed to Rivki’s parents that she didn’t think that Rivki would ever walk again.

I think I’m going to make a sign with the name “RIVKA BAT YAEL” in big letters and post it in my kitchen. It will remind me the next time a situation seems so gray, so horrible, so inescapable that, in fact, “The redemption of Hashem comes in the blink of an eye.”

Thank you, Jewish moms, for your prayers. And thank you, Hashem, for bringing back this precious girl we all love so much.

One last thing. Rivki still has a way to go to full recovery. At this point, Rivki’s mother told me, her biggest issue is physical weakness. Yael and Yonatan are therefore asking for everyone to keep davening, and what time is better than the present? Please continue to say Tehillim for a complete recovery for Rivka bat Yael as well as for my friend Hagit bat Leah, a very ill young mother of 5 children who is in need of some serious Rivka-bat-Yael sized miracles…