Misaskim Expedites Security Clearance for Eliyashiv Medical Team
June 19, 2011
Misaskim Expedites Security Clearance for Eliyashiv Medical Team
On Motzoei Shabbos Shlach, dedicated Misaskim volunteers were again called upon to play a key role in community service. A medical team and their sensitive equipment needed to get through airport security. These doctors are scheduled to perform emergency heart surgery on the posek hador, Maran haGaon Rav Yosef Shalom Eliyashiv shlit'a, at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

About seven years ago, Harav Eliyashiv underwent emergency surgery for a bleeding artery near the heart. Leading vascular surgeon Dr. Daniel Clair, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, was flown in to perform the risky procedure. Just recently, after Rav Eliyashiv had felt some weakness, Dr. Clair was consulted and determined that the same artery had now weakened and a second surgery was needed. Now, as then, Gedolei Torah in Eretz Yisrael turned to Misaskim to assist in expediting the doctors' journey along with their sensitive equipment through airport security. Using its various contacts in the TSA and the Port Authority Police, Misaskim was able to facilitate the passage of two doctors and complex medical equipment from Newark Liberty International to Eretz Yisrael in cooperation with the directors of airport security, PAPD, the TSA, and El Al management.

A time-sensitive mission such as this often includes many logistical hurdles. For example, the plane is scheduled to land at 5:30 PM and surgery was slated for 8:00 Sunday evening (Israeli time), leaving little time for the equipment to be checked in through mandatory security procedures.

Volunteers, who have been tirelessly working on the details of the operation since Thursday, can finally breathe a sigh of relief: "Baruch Hashem, the doctors are off. We are grateful to have been able to assist in this situation and to ensure that Rabbi Eliyashiv, who is from the Shiyorei Knesses Hagdolah, gets the proper care he needs. We ask that the community continue to pray for his refuah. Please daven for Yosef Shalom ben Chaya Musha."

Misaskim's role in Rav Eliyashiv's previous heart surgery was no less pivotal, making special arrangements in an extreme time crunch that involved escorting the same doctors straight from one surgery in Manhattan to the airport where they caught a flight to Shaare Zedek, 5,700 miles distant, for the operation.
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