Family of Four Meets in Different Roles at Ashdod Hospital

An unusual scene unfolded this week in the emergency department at Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital, where four members of the Far family found themselves in the same place at the same time, each serving in a different link of the medical chain. The encounter brought together ambulance work, emergency care and maternity care under one family roof.

Izik Far, a senior MDA medic, arrived at the emergency room with a patient from Ashdod who needed urgent treatment. With him was his son Noam, 18, an MDA trainee and volunteer in an intensive care ambulance unit who joined the organization at age 14 and studied emergency medicine in high school. The patient was handed over to the care of their son and brother, Oren Far, 28, an emergency department nurse who had just returned to the hospital after about six months of reserve duty as a medical officer and was working one of his first shifts back.

At the same time, Maya Far, the deputy head nurse in the maternity and newborn department one floor above, came down to the emergency unit. For the family, the moment was especially symbolic because Izik often brings laboring women to the hospital and passes them on to Maya’s care, and now Oren had joined that family chain connecting emergency response, the ER and delivery rooms.

Maya said, “At our home we talk about giving, responsibility and mission. Each of us meets people at a different moment in life, in an ambulance, in the ER or in the delivery room, but in the end we all work toward the same goal. This meeting reminded us how much medicine and volunteering are part of our family.” Yusafa Dayan, head of nursing at the hospital, said Oren returned after significant reserve service, including during Operation “Roar of the Lion,” while Maya had been a key part of the protected maternity system and worked around the clock caring for hundreds of women who brought new life into the world.