With No Hands, Asaf Won Gold!

September 13, 2024

Israel’s longest war has produced a large number of amputees. Sheba is leading Israel in doing the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and civilians, including both fitting them with prosthetics and prepaing them for their new way of living.

As part of this, Sheba is collaborating with the company 6Degrees, a pioneer in using technology to rehab. Their breakthrough VR therapy, MyMove, represents a significant leap forward in treating phantom limb pain and accelerating recovery.

MyMove uses an interactive VR game combined with a strap fitted over the amputated area, promoting movement and improving range of motion. Patients can engage in virtual soccer matches and music games, kindling a sense of competition and accomplishment by performing activities they previously took for granted, focusing on the game rather than the pain. They enable the injured to not only alleviate their pain and reduce reliance on painkillers but also to decrease the need for frequent one-on-one physical therapy sessions. Better outcomes are happening already.

However, before there was all this technology, there was just the bond between patient and doctor.

Asaf Yasur grew up in Moshav Aloni Bashan in the Golan — one of six children. In school he stood out for his sporting skills.

When he was 13 years old, exactly a week before his Bar Mitzvah, he saw a ball in the electrical service room of his moshav and he jumped in to remove it. As went to leave the room, he tripped and grabbed an electric cable – one that carried a load of more than twelve-thousand volts. Asaf was electrocuted and his hands were badly injured. He was helicoptered to Sheba, where the doctors had to amputate both of his hands mid-forearm, plus some additional surgeries. He nearly died in the process.

Dr. Itai Pessach, today the Director Sheba’s Safra Children’s Hospital was then a young senior physician at the pediatric ICU. He was the one to receive Asaf – evacuated by an IDF helicopter – and the first to treat his severe injuries. He and the amazing teams of the Edmond and Lily Safra children’s hospital had to fight to save Asaf’s life but were unable to save both his arms. Together with Asaf and his family they worked tirelessly to treat and help rehabilitate Asaf and give him the best possible future. He was even able to celebrate his bar mitzvah just one week after his injury! Of course, his bar mitzvah was held inside Sheba Medical Center.

Dr. Pessach’s efforts made a real difference.

Asaf studied taekwondo and became a Paralympian in Israel. He went on to win two consecutive gold medals at the World Championships in Turkey in 2021 and Mexico in 2023, and the gold medal at the European Championships in Serbia in 2024.

And then Israel sent him to the Paralympics in Paris, where he just won a gold medal.

Here he is standing alongside Dr. Ram Sack from Sheba’s National Institute of Sports Medicine, who also served as the chief physician for the delegation to Paris.

Every wounded soldier and civilian deserves to live the fullest life possible. And with the old-fashioned dedication of caregivers like Dr. Pessach and now the addition of advanced technology, our wounded heroes will be given the brightest future to be had, at Sheba Medical Center.

Am Yisrael Chai.