On the 14th of August, 2007, our two sons were born: Ben and Ariel Tovi-Fein, in the 30th week of my pregnancy. They were born in a C-section operation due to an eminent fear to the life of the small fetus, which was expressed in the significant gap in their size at time of birth. Ben was born at the weight of 3.13 Lbs. and Ariel at the weight of 1.94 Lbs.

We went through a very difficult time at the hospital ward for premature babies, and that is an understatement. Ariel was in life-threatening situations many times. Over and over we were told by the doctors that all that is left to do is to pray, but we did not give up and continued to believe that Ariel will over-come all the horrible diseases that have come upon him.

Little Ariel was sick with NEC (necrosis of the intestine) and suffered from multi-systemic damage. He stopped breathing and his hurt stopped pumping. He was resuscitated and linked to a breathing machine. Ariel underwent surgery to amputate a part of his intestine and hardly recuperated from the surgery, after his respiratory situation deteriorated and he was swaying between life and death for many days.

Ariel was attached to almost every machine possible, he was bloated from edemas which doubled his weight and was treated with steroids and different kinds of antibiotics – this treatment was life saving yet caused him severe damage for the rest of his life as a child and a grown-up.

Since February 2008, Ariel is “hospitalized” at home because of his dependency on medical oxygen, yet he is not ventilated. We do all we can to take care of Ariel day and night and invest all of our energies in raising him at home and avoiding contagion of children diseases and other infections, including isolating him from his siblings (including his twin brother). For this purpose, we have established a “small hospital” at home for Ariel, with all the medical equipment needed for his care.

Ariel has been recognized by the Israeli ministry of health and the Israeli ministry of social affairs as an infant who is in life threatening situation and, following the recommendations of his doctors, must have personal care at home. In actual fact, he needs monitoring and medical care 24 hours a day and we use the aid of a nursing care giver 11 hours a day, 5.5 days a week.

Ariel has been recognized as 100% disabled by the National insurance institute of Israel (only due to the dependency on oxygen) and he suffers from various medical problems, such as chronic lungs disease (BPD – severe harm caused to lungs due to continued respiratory periods at high pressure); Hearing impairment in both ears; strabismus; difficulty in eating and digesting; brain damage PVL; substantial hindrance in growing and development (FTT), and an oppressed immune system (THI).

In addition to the medical treatments, Ariel must also receive rehabilitation treatment: Physical therapy, speech therapy, play-therapy, Psychological therapy, musical treatment and more – mostly given through home visits (!).

We as a family have been conducting an emergency routine for the last two years. There is no difference for us between night and day, while all of our family resources: financial, physical and mental are dedicated towards caring for Ariel. Our financial status has deteriorated, and as time passed we realized that the aid from the government and its institutions is not sufficient to overcome this period. Especially since I have been forced to stop working (I practiced law in a big Israeli firm), and the aid is not sufficient to succeed in rehabilitating Ariel – we were actually directed by the government to different foundations.

I would like to emphasis, that albeit the situation, we have been able to maintain a warm and happy family framework and we are raising our three children with much love. We are grateful for having the right to raise Ariel and see how all the rehabilitating treatments are fruitful and he has grown up to be a joyous, wise and active child which captures with his charm everybody who comes in contact with him. Hence, in our perspective, and the medical perspective too, Ariel is a medical miracle, a story of success.

In addition to this, we have come to realize that due to Ariel’s complicated situation, and due to the fact that (Thank G-D) he does not suffer from a special syndrome, he “falls between the cracks” and does not suit any of the classifications of the different existing foundations. Due to this, we have turned to the help of the caring public.

We have established a fundraising fund for Ariel at the foundation “Haverim Le’refua” and a media story about Ariel was published in “Yediot Ahronot” newspaper on 19.12.09. But, the money we have been able to collect through the story have run out and in order to not find ourselves hopeless and not able to continue caring for Ariel in the way that he needs – we return to the help of the public – Your Help!