A 55-year-old Egyptian woman is recuperating in Hadassah Hospital after undergoing open heart surgery there. The woman, Mrs. Padwa Kordiyeh, came to Hadassah, accompanied by her son, a Cairo doctor, after hearing about the hospital over Israel Radio’s Arabic program, “A Doctor Behind the Microphone.”
Her son, apparently, was one of the people who convinced her to make the journey to Jerusalem. She made contact with Hadassah Hospital through a married daughter who lives in the Gaza Strip and entered Israel via the Allenby Bridge from Jordan.
Mrs. llana Batzri, who runs the radio program, visited the Egyptian woman in the hospital and was told that the program was very popular in Egypt. Mrs. Batzri said she frequently receives letters from Arab countries asking specific medical questions to be answered on the program. She said the doctors themselves answer the questions on the program. In Hebrew or English, to ensure the listeners that the answers are authentic.
Mrs. Batzri said she had several times handled the “technical” details to allow someone from an Arab country to come to Hadassah Hospital for treatment. She recently made arrangements for a patient from Syria who was encouraged to come here by Syrian doctors and the hospital is awaiting his arrival.
Meanwhile, five Iranians, three Moslems and two Jews, are back in Iran after receiving kidney treatment at Beilinson Hospital near Tel Aviv. Prof. Joseph Sonnensfeld, head of the hospital’s Urology Department last week was urgently called to Teheran for consultations on a patient there.
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