“I Will be with you. I will stay with you. I will not leave you.” Lydia Laxner, Head Nurse ICU

Linoy Buskila was just 6 years old when she survived a terror attack that killed 2 people in a market place in Netanya, in 2002.

The terror attack was committed by a suicide bomber dressed up as a soldier. He was standing right next to little Linoy at the time of detonation. The blast sent her flying and her back was on fire.

“I didn’t feel pain, just fear.” Linoy Buskila, Child survivor of terror attack, Netanya

She was taken to Laniado to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and was received by Lydia Laxner, who is the Head Nurse of the ICU.

Lydia explains that the system requires swift action but can still be deeply traumatic, even for staff. “As you receive the ambulance and open the doors, one can never tell what to expect or who they will be treating. It could be your child, neighbour or someone you know.”

As well as being Head Nurse (ICU), Lydia is also the Disaster Medicine Coordinator. Her job has been to prepare for and manage mass casualty events.

Up until 2005 there were 22 bomb blasts in Netanya. This, unfortunately, meant that the Hospital had to quickly prepare and put procedural processes in place to best care for multiple patients.

When Linoy arrived at Laniado she was crying and was very frightened and needed to be comforted. Laniado Hospital has put in place a system that provides a child with a “surrogate mother”- a professional who never leaves the side of the child, staying by the side of the child and telling them that they will not leave them. This is done to minimise the memory of the chaos of the hospital. Lydia says that this way you take care of the “soul” of the child by taking care of children’s emotional, as well as physical pain as quickly as possible.

“Saving a life is like bringing a new life into the world. It’s like being reborn…There is no higher value in life than to love another person.” Lydia Laxner, Head nurse ICU

When father of Linoy, Yaakov Buskila, received the call about the emergency, he could not grasp what had just happened to his daughter. He could hardly recognise his own child in hospital. Her hair was burnt off and her face was covered in shrapnel. Although grateful for the care she was given, he still felt like every stitch that was sewn on her little face was like a dagger in his heart. He slept next to her bed (in hospital) for a week.

Linoy is now healed physically but to this day, she finds it hard to leave the house. The post traumatic stress of terrorism that she experienced as a child has left its own scar.

Hear how Laniado helped to take control of her emotional as well as her physical pain in the aftermath of this terrible terror attack.