Chapter 67

My brother-in-law and the members of his household pressed us to leave their home and return to our own, for they did not want the child to expire in their home, God forbid. They gave us the container of buttermilk and also a small bottle of hot tea, so that from time to time we could place a little in the child’s mouth to sustain him. Against our will we left them, crushed in spirit and in anguish and grief beyond all measure in the world. Thus I walked with my wife, while she carried the child in her arms.

She said to me, “Since we are here outside the city, let us go in to Dr. Kagan. Once we enter the city, we will have no one else whatever with whom to speak or whom to consult, and so forth. What will become of this? Let us therefore go to the aforementioned physician; perhaps she will take him into a hospital under her supervision,” and so forth. We went to her home on Abyssinians Street, but she had not yet come out to receive patients. Sick people sat there waiting. My wife, may she live, and I paced about with the child, and every moment seemed to us longer than a year, as is readily understood when one has such a dangerously ill child, and so forth. We asked the physician’s maid to tell her that this was urgent, and so forth, but she refused and said that the physician would come out immediately.

In the meantime an effendi arrived and summoned her to Bikur Cholim Hospital, where a consultation was being held concerning his sick child by several physicians, including her and Dr. Rabinowitz of Hadassah, and so forth. She was delayed there. Meanwhile, the women who sat in the room waiting with their children rebuked us and demanded that we not remain in the room with our child, lest he harm their children, and we were compelled to pace outside with him. I said to my wife that perhaps that other child would serve as an atonement for this child of ours. We sat there and gave the child a little tea so that he should not expire, God forbid. We also did not wish to make the gravity of his condition too apparent in the eyes of the people and the physician, lest they despair and refuse even to see or hear us.

Thus an hour or more passed, during which the child vomited something resembling black blood, and so forth. When the physician returned, the maid immediately allowed us to enter. They placed the child upon the bed; the physician saw what he had vomited and examined him. She said that the child was in an altogether terrible state and that she had nothing she could do. She said that his stomach was poisoned, and so forth. We asked, “What are we to do?” She replied that she did not wish to treat the child. Moreover, admission to Bikur Cholim Hospital under her supervision required payment, and she could not fulfill our request.

She telephoned the nurse from the Tipat Chalav infant-welfare clinic in the Old City and described the child’s condition—that he was critically ill and in danger beyond measure—and asked her to endeavor to have him admitted to the hospital, and so forth. The nurse answered that she did not wish to involve herself in the matter at all, for she was angry that, before our journey, we had not taken him to Hadassah Hospital when she had asked us to do so.

In sum, the aforementioned physician instructed us to go to Dr. Rabinowitz so that he might admit the child to Hadassah Hospital under his supervision, or else to prevail upon the Medical Aid Committee to pay for the child’s care at Bikur Cholim under her supervision. She told us to hurry to Bikur Cholim Hospital, where we would still find Dr. Rabinowitz, who had been there together with her in connection with a certain patient.

She gave us a letter for him. We hurried with the child to Bikur Cholim, but there we were told that he had already left. We rushed from there to the Hadassah clinic. They told us that he was then receiving patients. They wished us to stand in line, take a number, and wait until our turn arrived. We pleaded earnestly that this was a matter of mortal danger in which every moment counted, and so forth. Only after extensive pleading did we prevail upon them to allow us to enter. We went inside, and my wife, may she live, entered with the child to see Dr. Rabinowitz and handed him the letter from Dr. Kagan.

He examined the child and told us that we had already missed the proper time, as though to say that there was nothing further to be done to preserve the child’s life. My wife said to him that as long as the soul remained within the child, we were not yet too late, and Hashem, may He be blessed, could help, and so forth. He acknowledged the truth of her words and said that they should take the child into the hospital, “but…” and so forth—as though to say that he did not know whether he could help or benefit the child. Nevertheless, Hashem, may He be blessed, could help, and for that reason he was willing to admit him to the hospital.

However, payment was required for Hadassah Hospital, and who would pay on his behalf? He sent us to the Medical Aid Committee in the adjoining building so that they might arrange to have him admitted to Hadassah Hospital. I went there, and my wife soon arrived as well, carrying the child in her arms. We entered the aforementioned Medical Aid Committee office. Several women sat there and discussed among themselves what could be done, for they said they could no longer help because their allotted number of cases had already been filled, and so forth. They sat thus for some time, deliberating and conferring with one another. They told me to seek some means of obtaining the money required for the hospital, or at least to obtain some person’s guarantee for the money. I told them the truth: I had no possible means of doing so.

In sum, they sat for some time discussing among themselves what should be done, and so forth, while my wife and I sat holding the child in our arms, with a fire burning beneath us because of the child’s condition, lest he expire in our hands, God forbid. When they saw that the child’s condition was exceedingly dangerous, God forbid, and that there was no time to delay even for a single moment, they told me that my wife should travel with the child to Hadassah Hospital and that I should go and seek some means of obtaining whatever sum of money was needed, and so forth. I again replied with the truth: I had no possible means whatsoever.