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Israeli Eye Surgeons Helped Dozens of Wounded Azerbaijani Soldiers

(JNS) Nurit Greenger - On Sept. 27, 2020, amid the Covid pandemic, a war erupted between Azerbaijan and Armenia that lasted 44 days. Wounded Azerbaijani soldiers with severe face and eye injuries urgently required surgical eye restoration and orbital reconstruction with ocular prostheses. Dr. Messoud (Mesut) Ashina, a Danish-Azerbaijani neurologist, reached out to Dr. Yishay Falick, an Israeli ophthalmologist and surgeon, to organize a humanitarian delegation to Baku to provide medical assistance to veterans. In order to overcome the pandemic restrictions, the medical team was flown to Azerbaijan on a private jet. From Feb. 27 to March 7, 2021, the Israeli team provided medical care and surgeries to over 150 Azerbaijani veterans. The team worked 12 to 15-hour days, sometimes using three operating rooms simultaneously to perform a total of 56 operations. One of the wounded soldiers was Arif Hajiyev, a Muslim, who required a triple cornea transplant to restore his eyesight. On Dec. 18, 2022, Hajiyev landed in Israel where he met with and deeply thanked the wife of the late Kobi R., whose corneas had saved Hajiyev's sight. Hajiyev prayed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and thanked Israel for its humanitarian spirit.
2023-02-16 00:00:00
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