Picture this. You’re a doctor called up for reserve duty right after the Oct. 7 massacre, and you’re sent to Gaza. You’re a specialist in neurological rehabilitation, and when you get to an epicenter of fierce battles in Khan Yunis, you see and experience unspeakable things. That’s what happened to Dr. Amihai Levkoviz, the head of the Neurological Rehabilitation Unit at Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa.
Upon his return to Bnai Zion, a new patient walked in one day, Levkoviz recalled. “He was the head of a platoon, leading many soldiers, and he was wounded in Khan Yunis. He was a paratrooper, and I was also a physician for the paratroopers. We found out that we were in the same place in Gaza, in the same unit. We shared the same stories, even the same age. Even though we maintained the roles of doctor and patient during his rehabilitation, I treated him like a friend. It wasn’t a doctor-patient relationship. We connected in a spiritual way.”
Stories like Levkoviz’s are not rare these days, as soldiers and their healers discover that they have more in common than they could have ever imagined before Oct. 7.
For nearly 17 months, the Bnai Zion physiotherapy and occupational therapy departments have raised the bar on “integrative medicine,” an umbrella term for doctors, nurses, and therapists who treat from their areas of specialization and, at the same time, work together as one unit.
“I don’t see myself as the head of the department giving orders from top down,” Levkoviz said. “Usually in a hospital setting, a patient comes to see the nurse, then the doctor, who plans for her or his treatment, which includes occupational therapy (hands, arms, and cognitive functions) and physical therapy (legs and feet). Here, we’re working together. The main purpose of our team is to get good results for the rehabilitation of the patient. Throughout the patients’ rehabilitation, we meet to discuss their progress weekly.”
‘Fauda’ actor puts a spotlight on rehab
Levkoviz readily concedes that rehab wasn’t considered as glorified as internal medicine. But after the war started and Idan Amedi, the star of the TV series Fauda, was severely wounded in combat, people came to understand that every soldier recovering after surgery needs rehabilitation. “Most non-combat patients in our department are young people who lost their function because of an accident or a war injury. They are suffering from neurological injuries or burns they sustained in car accidents or work-related incidents,” Levkoviz explained.
Time to heal
Once a patient receives a treatment plan, he or she is sent for physiotherapy or occupational therapy, oftentimes both.
“Sometimes we have to take a break and say, ‘Wait a minute.’ These soldiers can’t wait to return to their unit. It’s like we have to say, ‘You’re not ready yet. Give yourself the time to heal.’ It’s a physiological and psychological process,” said Elona Yeger, head of the Physiotherapy Department and mother of two IDF soldiers. Yeger’s daughter is a medic; and her son, who fought in Gaza and completed active duty, is recovering from pain and hearing loss.
“A lot of the therapists here have family members serving on the front lines in the IDF. Some of my physiotherapists have husbands in the army, in reserve, and from the start of the war they were left at home alone with young kids. They came to work every day, despite the unbelievable conditions they faced at home.
“It’s something I need to mention – the dedication and the commitment of the staff here is something I still can’t fathom. I just know that my goal and my vision in our department is to see each person and get to know each person.
“Thank goodness these soldiers are young, and what we noticed, which is so amazing to us, is their rate of recovery,” Yeger marveled. “We’ve never seen recovery happen as quickly as it has with these guys. We’ve got soldiers who come completely bed-ridden or arrive in rehab in wheelchairs, and after two weeks they’re running on crutches. After a few more weeks, they are running without any assisted devices at all. One of the things that they share in common is their desire to return to their units.”
With physiotherapy comes psychotherapy
“Sometimes we act as both therapists and psychologists. When missiles were coming from Hezbollah to the Krayot near the hospital, the blasts shook the building. Many of the soldiers had panic attacks. Sometimes we sit with them. Sometimes we hold them. When it’s severe, we hug it out to calm them down,” Yeger said.
The psychological aspect of treatment is an essential part of what goes on in rehab, she continued. “We’re working on processes to give them functions they can do, and psychologically we’re working together.”
Rehabilitation of the soldiers is not done in isolation, Yeger emphasized. “We have Bedouin, Druze, and Christian soldiers, secular and religious, along with young people from the Arab communities who are victims of gunshot wounds from their own society. I think the trick is to rehabilitate the soldiers along with everyone else because the war increases admissions. Patients find each other. They become friends with each other and form really good relationships.”
Hospital friends for life
Tom Alexandron, executive director of the Bnai Zion Hospital Friends Association, and board member Shaul Harduf have led the hospital through what they describe as “exceptionally difficult times.” While it might seem obvious for soldiers from the North to go for rehabilitation to Bnai Zion, they are, according to Harduf and Alexandron, often sent to Sheba Medical Center in the center of the country. “For families making the daily commute to visit their loved ones – wounded soldiers – many don’t know that Bnai Zion is an option,” Harduf said.
“We’ve raised dozens of millions of shekels, renewed the physiotherapy ward, changed all the beds to electric ones. It’s important for people to understand that even in government hospitals, we count on the generosity and the goodwill of people to promote and develop this hospital. Before Oct. 7, we had three or four soldiers at a time. Since the war, we’ve treated more than 200 soldiers. The one advantage is that our rehab facilities are inside Bnai Zion Hospital, so we can offer full medical cover. Patients don’t have to go around to other hospitals to be seen by other departments.
“Since Oct. 7, we’ve treated severe traumas, eyesight loss, and hearing loss. We have a phenomenal ENT Department and Ophthalmology Department, with Dr. Yoav Vardizer, a world-renowned expert in sight prosthetics, who manages to give confidence back to the soldiers,” Harduf said.
Confidence is a crucial part of the healing journey. When hospital staff see that an amputee is going through a grieving process, they figure out how to help him in the hospital setting and beyond. They work with Ilan, a Haifa-based organization, where soldiers can receive Paralympic team training; and Beit Halochem, a sports center that works with wounded soldiers in wheelchairs.
With this, hope begins – and the journey continues.
The spirit of going first
Rehab, the Magazine learned, is not just about regaining physical function but also maintaining the strong motivation to do so. Dr. Hillel Barzilai, a physician in a battalion in the Givati Brigade, is a soldier among many with a truly inspirational story.
Barzilai was wounded in August 2024 when his armored vehicle exploded during a mission. Hamas terrorists had run out of hiding with a bomb, attached it to the IDF vehicle Barzilai was traveling in with four other soldiers, then ran away before the explosion occurred.
“Hamas published the attack on social media,” the IDF announced, noting that Barzilai was the most severely wounded.
Four months into his rehabilitation, Barzilai spoke to the Magazine during a break from one of his physiotherapy sessions at Bnai Zion Hospital. Trading his army uniform for sweat pants and a T-shirt for the time being, Barzilai sees his rehabilitation as the necessary step toward his reentry into active service.
“I went to study general medicine before I did army service, a path that’s common among doctors in the IDF. I was still in my internship year when Oct. 7 happened. You are in the hospital getting your license, but you have to do something for your country. You hear about all these people dying, and you have to take part in this.
“Givati is the brigade that from the beginning of the war until the recent deal was leading combat,” Barzilai said. “The values of Givati aligned with those I grew up with – to give as much as you can, with the spirit of going first.
“When you get wounded like I did, all the systems in the body are affected, and I needed a long hospitalization until I could get to this type of outpatient rehab at Bnai Zion. It involves coming to the hospital and going home two mornings a week,” he said.
“Luckily, I didn’t lose any limbs. I’m suffering from weakness in the leg, pain, and loss of hand mobility due to burns. Rehab, with regard to occupational therapy, is helping me grasp harder and work with my fine motor skills.
“I’m also working in physiotherapy with machines to strengthen my upper and lower body. I used to rock climb, so I’m working on getting back to the things I used to do. It involves strengthening muscles or using other parts of my body to make small adjustments in the way I run. Now I’m taking smaller, more efficient steps for my condition.
“Being wounded as a soldier has affected my outlook as a doctor. I think about it a lot. The thing that really pops into my mind is pain management.
“We all know the logic behind it, and there have been quite a few studies about the importance of how you should treat patients. But when you feel it yourself, you realize it’s much more complex,” Barzilai said.
“I WAS first hospitalized in the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. I have good things to say about it. I know how the system works in this country. I know there’s a lot of pressure on the staff.
“It’s hard to give good medicine and treatment for so many patients with so little staff, and I’m happy I don’t feel it at Bnai Zion. I’m talking about Dr. Amihai Levkoviz, the department head of neurophysiotherapy. When you’re a doctor, you always try to treat yourself. But it’s not good for you.
“Dr. Amihai really understands me. We talk to each other, we make decisions together. I can’t thank him enough. He has a holistic approach that’s really amazing.
“He looks at the person as a whole, looks at my abilities, and asks me what I am expecting to achieve here. He looks at my surrounding family and my girlfriend and knows that I have support and someone who helps me if I have pain or problems with my stomach, where I had surgery.
“He wants to make things as whole as they can be. You see someone with my injuries. You can’t understand the pain until you’ve gone through it. On a scale of one to 10, I found out there’s 12, 13, and 20.”
Barzilai said his current pain level is at four, and he is still taking medications. “I hope to get to full recovery and forget about the injuries in a few years from now. But even if I can’t, my goal is to run a certain mileage at a certain pace. I don’t care if I’m running the same way. I have a goal in mind, and I’ll achieve it one way or another.
“If you ask me now if I would choose to do it over again, it’s 100% yes. I got lucky, and my injuries are not debilitating me right now in a way that I can’t overcome. I’m not doing everything I could before, but I’m very optimistic.
“I’m happy with what I chose. I knew that something like this could happen. We had a lot of wounded men before I was wounded, and I had the privilege to treat more than 20 in the field. I was happy I could save some of their lives.
“To be honest, I came with high expectations, but Bnai Zion Hospital exceeded them. It’s not just the Physiotherapy Department but also the Occupational Therapy Department. People there are professionals in the highest sense possible. They discussed my rehabilitation goals with me, and they’re making it happen.
“I was told that Bnai Zion is the leading hospital for rehabilitation in the North. Now I understand why. Everyone I met was very professional and very human. They see you. They’re empathetic. They have time for you.”
The writer is an artist, art teacher, and writer based in Haifa. Her paintings are available as prints and by commission on www.genesiscards.com.
