“Our Place Is an Island of Hope and Boundless Giving”

There are places most of us will prefer to avoid, such as clinics and hospitals, but one place rose to prominence after that horrible Shabbat, October 7th, as a place from which patients came out “on their feet”. This is the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Medical Center of the Clalit Group, which constitutes a rehabilitative home from people suffering from various functional disorders, due to illness or accidents, including front line soldiers. Varies departments at the Hospital answer all patients’ needs, children, and adults alike, in rehabilitative medicine, from orthopedic injuries, spinal injuries, cranial trauma, and stroke, to intensive care for rehabilitating consciousness, granting treatments extending the patients’ lives and improving their quality of life.

“We mainly admit people whose functioning deteriorated in an instant in the middle of their lives when they were at their peak. As happened in the current war”, says Dr. Hagai Amir, director of the Loewenstein Rehabilitative Hospital Rehabilitation Medical Center. “Suddenly, their functioning is severely impaired, and this is something people find very difficult to accept. This has a huge negative impact on people, who face a disability they did not know before”.

Dr. Amir says that the Rehabilitative Hospital center employs a staff of approx. 1,100, including therapists in a variety of fields, all working together to strengthen the patients and give them the power to continue fearlessly towards their goal. “The unique thing about our therapists is their boundless giving and the warm heart of each of them, from the housekeeping staff to the department head. They come to work with a happy heart and give great hope to the patients”, he proudly says. “I am proud to say that people from all sectors and places come to us, including from abroad, and that we enjoy optimal coexistence. Everyone, without an exception, to matter what their faith is and from where they came, work together for one goal: the patient’s recovery.

An Optimal Plan for the Patient’s Needs
Dr. Amir (Reserve Colonel) began his professional journey in the IDF Medical Reserve, specialized in orthopedics, and noticed that he can treat complex fractures, but was not trained to treat simpler problems. This is where he met the rehabilitative profession. “This was a complete ‘eye opener’”, he recalls. “A specialized rehabilitative physician can formulate an optimal plan for the patient, ahead of time, and know if, for example, a surgical operation must be postponed, as such an operation requires the patient’s motivation and commitment to rehabilitation. The idea is to take an entire healthcare team and lead it, holistically, like an orchestra conductor, coordinating a harmonic symphony.

Does this require special training?
“Indeed. This is one medical specialization which incorporates many disciplines into one holistic vision. Today’s medicine enjoys great technological progress, ‘zooming in’ into the sickness and understanding its roots and the avenues for therapy. Rehabilitation is ‘zooming out’, taking a holistic view, and examining the patient’s human needs, environment, and future expectations”.

Dr. Amir says that one rehabilitative principle is placing achievable rehabilitative goals. “Reaching such goals grants power, both to the patients and to the therapists”, he explains.

“And in this time, we witness the power of the group, soldiers who came with a fighting spirit from the first moment. They came and said that their goal is to get back to their feet as quickly as possible and return to their units”.

This is very comforting and grants hope.
“Indeed. Our vision is not to remain one Hospital but to expand nationally, so that we could provide rehabilitative everywhere, to any person in Israel. While we are currently part of the Clalit group, we are an independent medical center serving all HMO patients. We train staff from all sectors, led by rehabilitative physicians, and are skilled in training teams to develop further rehabilitative branches.

With Help of our Friends
On that Shabbat, when the bloody war began, the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Medical Center had to act immediately to keep patients safe. “We have 300 rehabilitative beds, all full, and had to evacuate the top floor per the IDF Home front Command and Ministry of Health directives following rocket fire and prepare a place to the new patients who were expected to arrive”, Dr. Amir recalls the day when he urgently summoned all teams to the Rehabilitative Hospital Medical Center. “Additionally, we were in the process of renovation which should have ended in a month, and an amazing thing happened: all construction teams and contractors gave a shoulder to complete renovation in record time”. He said that the unity and efforts invested in that task were enormous, permitting them to successfully admit, on the second week of the war, dozens of civilians, and soldiers, after their health was stabilized in general hospitals.

That general united effort recalled by DR. Amir was like the heartening volunteer spirit of citizens around Israel. A similar effort was made in 1985 by the residents of Raanana, under the name “Friends of the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Medical Center”, which operates to this very day, for collecting donations for the welfare of Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Medical Center patients, which spearheads the rehabilitative field. “The Hospital Medical Center enshrined the vision of ‘Leading in Rehabilitation’, and it includes unique and world-leading departments”, explains the Association’s Chairman, Erez Meltzer. “Thew optimal and top-quality care by the Hospital’s teams is permitted thanks to their professionality,professionalism teamwork, experience, advanced treatments, and innovative equipment. All of these require resources, and thus we act together towards that goal”.

The Association acts in varied ways to recruit funding for purchasing advanced high-tech equipment, accessories, and instrumentation, including by arranging large annual galas, as well as smaller events, for the public. “Each can contribute to help support the compassionate, high-quality, rapid, and effective rehabilitation of every patient”, adds the Association’s CEO, Shiri Mazor. “So far, the donations permitted, among other things, purchasing advanced hospital beds, ceiling cranes, a huge patio with facilities for children, a therapeutic pool, and even establishing a theater troupe for patients suffering from language and speech disorders”.

Additionally, a unique Hub was opened, in collaboration with the Clalit Innovation Center and the governmental Innovation Authority, permitting dozens of college students and high-tech professionals to cooperate and develop innovative rehabilitative instruments.

“The thing permitting us to do all this amazing stuff, such as using a NASA anti-gravity Treadmill (AGT) device developed by the US Space Agency (NASA)device to help spinally injured patients, or a robotic walking rehabilitation system, is the donations collected for us by the Friends’ Association. They provide us with a breathing space and help us recruit all these innovative technologies from Israel and abroad. Thus, in excellence and humanity, we will continue to lead rehabilitation in Israel”, Dr. Amir concludes.

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In Collaboration with the Loewenstein Rehabilitative Hospital Medical Center Friends Association