Adi Levin from Moshav Kanaf in Ramat HaGolan flew to the United States after serving three rounds of duty in the reserves and joining the fighting in Gaza as a tank soldier, shortly after completing his regular service. As soon as he received the call, he put on his uniform, and after finishing his reserve duty, he decided to fulfill a dream and fly for the big trip he had been waiting for. He and a friend arrived in New Orleans only to find themselves in a nightmare scenario of a combined ramming and shooting attack inspired by ISIS. Fifteen people were murdered, and Adi and his friend were injured. Adi was critically injured, is still hospitalized in the United States, and is now facing a very complex rehabilitation process after sustaining a head injury. Adi’s parents flew to the US and have been at their son’s hospital bed ever since, not leaving him for a moment. “For three hours he was considered missing,” his father, Chagai, told Channel 12. “The father of a friend who was traveling with him and was also injured called us on the afternoon of January 1. It was still 3 AM their time. He told us they were injured in the attack, that he was in the hospital, and that he didn’t know where Adi was. From that point, we began to unravel the situation.” At this stage, Adi’s father began frantic searches to locate him. The Chabad House in New Orleans joined the effort and went from hospital to hospital in search of him. Chagai was already on his way to the airport when he received the news: Adi had been located in a hospital. “I understood that he was badly injured, sedated, and on a ventilator. It was hard, but I switched to mission mode and the goal was to reach him as quickly as possible.” “He was in critical condition from life-threatening injuries. The complex part beyond his injuries was that it took several hours to understand that he had a vascular injury in his neck and had also suffered a stroke. This happened while I was in the air. My brother was in Florida and drove eight hours to New Orleans and took responsibility for Adi while I was on the plane.” Adi had to undergo open brain surgery and a piece of his skull was removed – a procedure that saved his life. Although there were several days of uncertainty, his condition eventually stabilized. Only then did the medical team “find the time” to treat his limb injuries: “He will need rods in his legs and arms and a very long rehabilitation. The injuries will accompany him for the rest of his life.” Adi’s new struggle is not just to survive but to continue living with the injuries. “He is now doing physical therapy,” Chagai said. “They need to reattach the missing part of his skull. Adi is strong. We are moving to rehabilitation today and hopefully, in a few months, we can continue treatment in Israel.” “The family back home is helping us, supporting us. The Israeli consul is in constant contact with us. The Israeli community in New Orleans has simply amazed us with all their help and generosity from the moment we arrived here. We want […]