Family Holiday Turns into a Fight for Life

It began as an ordinary family moment.

Three-year-old Noya sat beside her mother, Maayan, enjoying an ice cream at a hotel pool in Netanya. Around them, families relaxed, unaware that danger was drawing closer.

Then the sirens began to sound.

As warnings of incoming rockets echoed overhead, the atmosphere shifted in an instant. In the confusion, Noya slipped out of sight. Seconds later, Maayan realised her daughter was gone.

She found Noya at the bottom of the pool.

FROM A FAMILY HOLIDAY TO A FIGHT FOR LIFE

Maayan jumped in immediately, pulling her child from the water. Noya was unconscious. For seven agonising minutes, she did not respond.

At the same time, Noya’s father, Michael, a volunteer medic with United Hatzalah, was rushing to an emergency call, a report of a child drowning at a nearby hotel. He did not know it was his own daughter until a relative reached him while he was en route.

By the time Michael arrived, emergency teams were already working desperately to resuscitate Noya. She was stabilised at the scene and transferred to Laniado Hospital.

There, amid the continuing threat of missile attacks, Laniado’s medical teams provided the immediate, life-saving care Noya needed.

LIFE SAVING CARE UNDER MISSILE BARRAGES

Noya was saved but the circumstances reveal the limits of Laniado’s current Emergency Department. With more than 100,000 patients treated annually, the unit was never built to withstand modern threats alongside such volume.

While a temporary secure ward was created underground, many critically ill patients could not be moved. Medical teams stayed with them at ground level, prioritising care when transfer was not an option.