MK Moshe Gafni chairing a committee meeting
MK Moshe Gafni chairing a committee meetingAdina Walman, Knesset spokesperson

The head of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, MK Moshe Gafni, returned to work on Wednesday, chairing his first committee meeting following his recovery from a heart catheterization he underwent several weeks ago.

He opened the meeting with the Hagomel blessing recited after a person experiences a personal salvation, and then related the events that led to his hospitalization.

“I didn’t know what was going on – all I knew was that on Shabbat, I felt like I couldn’t walk,” he related. “My wife told me not to close my eyes. I wanted to go to pray Minchah [the afternoon prayer] so that the children wouldn’t get worried. Then I went to Ezer Mizion [a clinic providing emergency care], and there were two doctors there, who happened to be Arabs who were friends of mine, and I asked them to check out my eye, which had previously suffered a blow when I fell.”

Gafni continued: “The doctors insisted that I have an ECG done, even though all I wanted was for them to treat my eye. When they saw the results, they sent me straight to emergency. So I went to Mayanei Hayeshua hospital [in Bnei Brak, where Gafni lives], and there I met up with Dr. Zahalka, a cousin of the former MK of the same name. He took one look at me and – I’m not kidding, we’re friends – and I asked him what was going on. He said to me, ‘Are these your test results?’ and I said yes, they’re mine. They called the specialist right away and he arrived with his team. He told me that I was going to undergo a catheterization right away – that I was in the middle of having a stroke – and he couldn’t understand why I was laughing. It was a total miracle from Heaven,” Gafni related emotionally. “I had no idea that I was having a stroke – I had no idea at all.

“They brought in Professor Agranat, the head of the department, and he did the procedure right then and there and he literally saved my life. My children were the ones who made the decision not to make a big deal over it – they didn’t want all the headlines – but that also gave rise to worries with people who didn’t know what was going on with me. But thank G-d, everything turned out fine, and I am so grateful to the doctors who treated me in a truly exceptional manner.”

Gafni noted that “there wasn’t a single MK or Knesset employee who didn’t ask how I was doing. I hope that we will yet share many celebrations,” he added, “and of course, above all, I thank G-d for my recovery.”