When Sara and Yona Bar, an American couple living in Har Nof, Jerusalem, welcomed their first baby into the world, parenthood hit them hard. Their daughter Miriam Chana was constantly crying. Friends and family gave them for advice for handling their ‘fussy baby,’ but none of their tips worked. Sara had a dark maternal instinct that something bigger was going on. Then, she found a lump in Miriam Chana’s abdomen.
Miriam Chana, now ten months old, was diagnosed recently with cancer. Doctors found four malignant tumors on her kidneys. She had not just been ‘fussy’... She had been in tremendous pain.
The baby girl endured six rounds of chemotherapy at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital, but the tumors were unaffected. “I can’t describe to you what it is like to hold your baby suffering through chemo in your arms,” writes Sara. “I pray you never have to experience that.”
It was then that doctors shifted their strategy. They told the Bar family to fly to America as soon as possible, so that Miriam Chana could be treated at Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. Just before Pesach, Sara got on a plane for her baby and left her life behind, to save the life of her child.
Miriam Chana’s case has been reviewed by the doctors at Sloan Kettering, and they urgently want to operate. The surgery to remove the baby’s tumors will cost the family a staggering $250,000.
Sara and Yona Bar are a young couple, living simply. Sara is a nurse at Shaarei Tzedek hospital, and Yona is the manager of a store. They scraped together all they had to afford the trip to America. They have no way of affording the surgery.
It is for this reason that they are, in their desperation, turning to the Jewish People for help. Donations are being collected via the family’s campaign page to save Miriam Chana’s life. The page is headed by a picture of an adorable, pudgy baby girl, with a pink bow. Right now, this campaign is the family’s only hope.