Making priorities in a family budget can be a challenge, but
when it comes to prioritizing the budget of an organization
such as Boruch Umarpeh, it's heart-rending. Each case is a
question of life and limb, each comes from a family that has
exhausted all its alternatives and remains unable to cope
with the crushing expenses of medical treatment, and each
case is brought before gedolei Yisroel for a
ruling.
"Saying that a family cannot afford treatment, no matter how
true it might be, is not going to heal the patient or put him
at ease," says Boruch Umarpeh's founder and chairman, Rabbi
David Schlesinger. "We work with the assumption that the
patient who comes to the charity organizations is doing so
because he, himself, cannot meet the expenses demanded of
him. He places his last hope in chessed organizations,
but if they turn him away empty-handed, in most cases he'll
fall into despair, and I don't have to tell you what despair
means when it comes to a person in need of treatment."
One of the recent cases Boruch Umarpeh handled involved a
girl whose hand was connected to her wrist in a deformed
position. Experts in Eretz Yisroel recommended an
expert in Germany who was able to correct the deformity in a
three-stage operation, with months separating each stage.
Each operation cost tens of thousands of dollars and required
a separate journey abroad.
Another case that gedolei Yisroel said should be given
priority involved a child suffering from acetabular
dysplasia, which made her hip prone to dislocation. She
already had a severe dislocation on her left side, and an
accessory (extra) toe on each foot. This child required
costly treatments at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in
Jerusalem. When Rabbi Schlesinger learned that the patient
was one of a family of 14 that lived in a 3-room apartment,
he decided to adopt them, finding various other ways to help
the family.
Department heads at hospitals are well aware of Boruch
Umarpeh's readiness to come to the aid of patients,
particularly when it is clear that their financial situation
forces them to forego vital treatment, choliloh.
Another recent case saw the organization purchase a $6,000
hearing aid for a patient whose hearing aid had been
stolen.
Still another case involved a two-and-a-half month old girl
born with a severe facial disfiguration and a hole between
her esophagus and trachea. She had been in the hospital since
birth, where she had undergone a tracheotomy, meaning a hole
was made at the base of her throat to allow air to pass
through. This hole required frequent cleaning from a buildup
of body fluids there, and she required a nearby oxygen source
at all times. The hospital was ready to release her, but how
could she make the trip home?
The Boruch Umarpeh team took care of everything, from
cleaning the tracheal hole with a suction device to
administering oxygen when necessary, and with expert
precision.
Another case involved a 20-year-old heart and lung patient
who also suffers from dysautonomia. Attached to an oxygen
supply at all times, he too had to be transferred from
Hadassah-Mount Scopus Hospital to a rehabilitation hospital.
Again, Boruch Umarpeh provided an ambulance and a team of
medics for the journey. Midway through the journey, the
doctor who was accompanying them said that he needed to check
the patient's blood to determine the level of oxygen
saturation. Of course, the Boruch Umarpeh ambulance was
equipped with a pulse oximeter — a device that measures
the amount of oxygen in the blood. The doctor determined that
the patient's oxygen level was too low to continue the
journey. The driver stopped the ambulance, the medics
increased the patient's oxygen supply and, after some minutes
passed, the doctor told the driver he could resume the
journey. In less than a half-hour, the patient was in his bed
at the rehabilitative hospital, hooked up to an oxygen and
fluids supply.
Boruch Umarpeh was founded 15 years ago. While it is based in
Jerusalem, it offers assistance throughout Eretz Yisroel.
At present, Boruch Umarpeh is conducting a special
fundraising campaign to supply needed medical equipment to
hospitals in the north of Israel. Boruch Umarpeh undertook
this project when the Lebanon War exposed the critical
shortage of such equipment and supplies in this part of the
country.
