Yosef Yitzchak at the Western Wall with United Hatzalah medical personnel, a nur
Yosef Yitzchak at the Western Wall with United Hatzalah medical personnel, a nurUnited Hatzalah

A 10-year-old boy who suffers from a birth defect that has kept him in hospital on a ventilator since birth was brought on Tuesday morning to the Western Wall in a moving birthday ceremony, which was made possible by United Hatzalah, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, and Herzog Hospital.

Herzog Hospital turned to United Hatzalah on behalf of the family of Yosef Yitzchak, from Jerusalem, in order to realize the family’s dream of bringing their son, who has been bedridden in the hospital since birth, to the Western Wall to pray. United Hatzalah contacted the Western Wall Foundation to check the feasibility of the request and make the necessary arrangements to transport the child with the ventilator and other medical devices that he requires to be with him at all times directly to the Western Wall plaza in an ambulance.

On Tuesday morning, United Hatzalah EMT and ambulance driver David Salach and paramedic Ariel Shusheim drove the intensive care ambulance to Herzog hospital to pick up Yosef Yitzchak and his family together with the nurses who attend to him at the hospital.

The child was brought to the plaza where he was taken out from the ambulance on a stretcher and then brought to the Wall itself in a joyful procession. Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch came to bless Yosef Yitzchak on his birthday and gave him a Book of Psalms as a gift. Yosef Yitzchak’s parents prayed for their son’s full recovery and thanked all of the organizations involved for their help in realizing their wish of bringing their son to the holy site.