"After a month of unconscious, I woke up, I found out I missed Passover. I realized I was heading for a long restoration campaign."

• Eli Bir returned to Israel after recovering from the Corona virus

  Photo: 

  Yossi Seliger

I was infected with Corona in the USA. Exactly there. Far from Israel and my family. A few days after Purim, I did not feel well. The fever climbed and so I put myself in solitary confinement. 

The suspicion is that Corona was matched upon receipt of test results. A few days later, my doctors told me they had to put me to sleep. For 30 years I have been an emergency medicine practitioner. I founded the Rescue Union whose volunteers have saved the lives of many. The concept of "anesthetized and breathing" is familiar to me and my fear was great.

After a month of unconsciousness and breathing in machinery, I woke up. At first I didn't know where I was. The doctors explained to me what my condition was and what happened. They said I was at the beginning of a long restoration campaign. I was sad to learn that I missed Passover, the holiday I love most. But I had a very great joy talking to my family, my wife and children.

Exciting: Eli Bir rescue chairman Eli Bir landed in Israel // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon

"Dad, what did you dream of when you slept?" My little daughter asked me during our first call. "I think I dreamed about angels," I answered. But I didn't dream. There were angels. Angels from all over the world who worried about me. I found out when they told me what was going on around me during this time.

I was told about Joseph Haim Kadosh, who celebrated Bar Mitzvah last week. He is a cancer patient and is fighting for his life. But twice a day he read Psalms for my recovery. I was told how 6,000 rescue union volunteers - Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze, each in their own way, prayed for my peace. I heard about the prayers of members of Jewish communities from Miami and across the US. A group of American Christians I wanted to address. A group of Indians and many more.

There were also angels who came close to me. Dr. Joe Sandberg and his wife, Adele, who have followed me to receive the best care available and have updated my family. Dr. Miriam Adelson, with whom I have a personal acquaintance, a doctor who saved many people during her life and publisher of Israel Today newspaper She sponsored me, prayed for me and made sure I get advanced treatment and medicines that just saved my life. I realized this was the first step in my quest for independence.  

The word "independence" suddenly has a broader meaning this year. Alongside autonomy, it also embodies the importance of not being needed by others. That is why I wish the State of Israel and all its citizens that we will continue to hold ourselves as a nation and as individuals. We will continue to unite, take it upon ourselves to help one another and take care of other people besides ourselves. That is how we will strengthen and so will we defeat the Corona epidemic. I thank God who healed me, the doctors who treated me and my angels. Those who enveloped me in prayers, love and compassion up close and far.

Proper Disclosure: Dr. Miriam Adelson is the publisher of "Israel Today". The Adelson Family Owns the Company Holding "Israel Today" Shares

The writer is president and founder of the "Rescue Union"