A doctor from Newton, Massachusetts, has spent the last two weeks in Israel treating survivors of the Oct. 7 terror attack.
“I felt I had no choice but to volunteer to help if it would be possible,” said Dr. Teodoro Forcht Dagi. “The injuries that I’m seeing are injuries of the head and face and of the spinal cord.”
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Dagi, a neurosurgeon, arrived in Israel the Friday before the attack. He was originally going to see family and witness the birth of his grandchild. Everything changed on Saturday.
“People scrambled to see what they could do to help,” he said. “And as a neurosurgeon with combat experience, I volunteered.”
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Dagi has been working at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv, considered one of the top medical centers in the Middle East. He believes right now is a very perilous time for Israel.
“For everybody that I talk to in Israel, there’s tremendous concern about loss of life and about collateral damage to innocent civilians,” he said.
Dagi says the attacks, and now the war, put things in perspective.
“It’s not only a question of operating correctly and caring for patients correctly,” he said. “It’s a question of caring for families and for networks of people of assuring them they will be cared for.”
Asked how long he plans to stay in Israel, the Massachusetts doctor said, “I don’t have a return date right now."
"I will stay as long as I can make a contribution,” he added, noting many people feel the need to help. "Many people are very eager to come if needed so I’m certainly not the only one."
