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Source: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Israels-daily-reality-Aluma-607215
Israel's Daily Reality: The Story of Aluma
(Jerusalem Post) Barbara Sofer - I've been asked to update the stories of terrorism survivors, those I met in the years between 2000 and 2005 when the horror of bus bombings, restaurant bombings and disco bombings aimed at young people was our daily reality in Israel. On Nov. 21, 2002, Aluma, 17, was riding a bus to school when Na'el Abu Hilail, 23, triggered 5 kg. of explosives packed with shrapnel. 11 people, 4 of them kids, were murdered and 50 passengers were injured. Aluma was unconscious, bleeding from 30 cuts from her right arm and leg. A rusty metal fragment had passed through her ear into her brain, but her school backpack protected her internal organs from the blast. For five days she lay unconscious. The neurosurgeons said the brain damage was so severe, they weren't sure they could repair it. Fortunately, a new immigrant neurosurgeon named Jose Cohen, skilled in endovascular procedures, had arrived from Argentina and his surgery worked. During a long rehabilitation, Aluma started regaining her speech and her ability to walk, gaining back everything but the use of her right arm. She went on to finish three academic degrees, in education, art and visual communications, and is now married and expecting a child. The writer is the Israel director of public relations at Hadassah.