Bita Nohbandi Morovati and Hilda Nehra/Rambam Hospital
When Bita Nohbandi Morovati, (46) from Los Angeles fled from Iran to Israel at the age of 8, she did it to fight for her life.
Only nine months after the death of her beloved father from cancer, Bita was diagnosed with childhood cancer which was rare for her age and put her life in danger.
In Israel, where her relatives lived, her mother knew there were doctors who could save her little daughter, and decided to take action: she packed a travel bag, her home and her older sister, and the three left for Turkey under the guise of a family trip.
From there, with the help of the Israeli embassy, they arrived in Eretz Israel and practically left everything they knew up until that very day behind them.
Arriving in Israel was for the girls of the family a new beginning for everything, literally.
Within a few days of her arrival in Israel, Nohbandi Morovati was already after a life-saving surgery at Rambam. 38 years later she returned to the same medical center in Haifa, this time to donate money to a new oncology emergency room that would be able to help the cancer patients treated there. As she stands in the same hospital where she changed Her life, so many years ago, that girl from Iran managed to close a circle.
"I remember very well the first days in Israel," she recalls in a conversation from the US, "We arrived in Israel on Friday, and on Saturday we already had an initial examination at the home of the doctor who operated on me, Prof. Yehuda Bar-Maor," she recalls, "on Wednesday I was already in the Rambam operating room.
My uncle, who lives in Haifa to this day, made all the preliminary arrangements.
Everything happened quickly and secretly and around me.
After the surgery, I was monitored for several years, and Rambam became a home. A place I always remembered fondly, despite the difficult moments. At first, when we didn't know a word of Hebrew and my mother spoke a little English, the nurses at the hospital prepared a Hebrew-Persian dictionary with the help of my uncle, then I would also come to visit the nurses who had already moved to another department, because a close relationship was formed.
With the doctor who accompanied me, Prof. Miriam Ben Harosh, who was then a young doctor in the department, and later the director of the system, I was in contact even many years after I recovered."
"I was in touch with them even many years after I recovered."
Dr. Shafra Ash, director of the hemato-oncology system for children at Rambam, Bita Nohbandi Morovati and Prof. Miriam Ben-Harosh, former director of the system and doctor of Bita./Rambam Medical College.
"When I see the hope in the eyes of others, families and children, I know I have done mine"
As mentioned, Nohbandi Morovati's first encounter with Israel was actually an encounter with the Israeli medical world.
In a reality where within a few months she lost her father to cancer, was diagnosed with the same disease and in a moment's decision left her whole life behind, Rambam became a bubble of protection. Decades later, when her husband David Morovati, whom she met when she moved to the US, was diagnosed with Cancer also, Rambam was the address she turned to for consultations, inquiries and help in considering possible medical treatments: "David was cancer-free for three months and then we were informed that the disease had returned," she says sadly, "We were in contact with the doctors at Rambam and were interested in experimental treatments. We intended to come to Israel and give it a chance, but then the corona epidemic broke out and everything stopped. Except for the progress of the disease."
A few months after her husband's death, the decision that she was going to put together all the painful pieces of her life into a triumphant picture that would be dedicated to the memory of her beloved took place in her heart.
"David was all about giving. He was always looking to do and give, to contribute and promote, to do good and to give meaning. We are both very connected to Israel, he was a Zionist, more of an Israeli than an Israeli, and even when he was in a bad state of health, he still talked about a visit we planned to make to Israel on Passover and it moved him very much On the second evening of the holiday, he passed away," she explains the sequence of tragic events, "in commemoration of his anniversary, I held a fund-raising evening in his memory, and we transferred the amount of money collected to Rambam, for the benefit of the oncology screening.
When I arrived in Israel a year after his death, for the trip we planned together, I was not alone.
He was with me.
I went to Rambam to see how the dream would become a reality. How David would continue to exist for others, and do good just as he knew how to do in his life, even after his death. This was my way of immortalizing him. Gift of life."
According to her pain is a powerful engine.
"Pain drives me to action," she explains, "When David was sick I was around his recovery all day. When he died, around the commemoration. An acquaintance of ours told me, the intensity of your pain took and changed worlds. I thought it was intimate and small, but through other people's eyes I realized that I was able to convey a broader message. When I was at Rambam, I met a sweet girl in the oncology department, named Nehra, who is dealing with cancer, in front of her I was strong and smiling, but when I left I cried for half an hour.
It brought me back to that pain.
There is a revolving door thing here, and hope is such an important part.
I had a conversation with Nehra's mother there in the ward, and it was important for me to give her hope.
Here I am, 38 years ago, I was also in the same place.
I coped, recovered, enlisted, studied, married, I wanted to tell her that there is life after the disease, and that she is in good hands.
The longing is always there, the pain will always be there, but when I see the hope in the eyes of others, families and children, I know that I have done mine."
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"In front of her I was strong and smiling, but when I left there I cried for half an hour."
Bita Nohbandi Morovati and Hilda Nehra/Rambam Hospital
The good news that makes all the difference for oncology patients at Rambam
A few weeks ago, the Danny and Cathy Rosencrantz oncology and hematology emergency room opened in Rambam in a separate dedicated complex, the first of its kind in the north.
The emergency department established with advanced standards, such as are reserved for the leading oncology hospitals in the world, will provide thousands of cancer patients with a comprehensive response of emergency medical services.
According to Prof. Irit Ben Aharon, director of Rambam's oncology department, the new emergency room is good news for the residents of the area and represents a significant improvement in the quality of care and service. In addition to the Rosenkranz family, the Gantz family from Haifa also contributed to its establishment.
Coping with cancer is accompanied by the need for many medical services, Along with risks arising from the immunosuppression caused by the treatments given to the patients. Because of this, they are exposed to more infections. The treatment of this group of patients in a dedicated emergency room is carried out with the aim of reducing the risks of infections and to give them the best treatment in emergency situations. The emergency room services are provided by a dedicated team, multi- areas, and also include supportive care and urgent palliative care.
The Rambam Oncology Center treats more than 5,000 new patients every year, and more than 29,000 chemotherapy and biological treatments and 40,000 radiation treatments are performed there each year.
Today, approximately 2,500 oncology patients come to the general emergency room
every year and Prof. Ben Aharon estimates that the number of patients who will come to the new oncology emergency room may be doubled.
The screening services will be available during the week until the afternoon hours, which will be extended in the near future until the evening hours. In addition to the opening of the oncology screening, additional services for cancer patients are currently being inaugurated at Rambam, including the "Tal Beit Meir Center" - a new center - for oncology medicine. integrative (complementary).
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