Doctors weren’t optimistic that Yulia Zalotsky would survive shrapnel injuries and blood loss from a Palestinian rocket barrage in May.
By Pesach Benson, United With Israel
Three months after being severely injured in a Palestinian rocket attack, and in defiance of all odds, Yulia Zalotsky, a 44-year-old single mother from the central Israeli city of Holon, was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday.
Zalotsky, a resident of Holon, was on her way to work on May 11, the second day of Operation Guardian of the Walls, when Palestinian terrorists fired a barrage of 130 rockets at Israel. One woman in Rishon LeZiyon was killed and dozens of other Israelis in the Greater Tel Aviv area were injured.
One rocket directly struck a bus just a few feet away from where Zalotsky was standing, injuring her and three others.
Zalotsky was rushed to Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center, where doctors were forced to amputate her left leg. She had lost so much blood and wasn’t expected to live more than a few hours.
But Zalotsky hung on — at times barely. She was in a coma for two months and underwent 13 complex surgeries.
Three weeks ago, she opened her eyes for the first time. And then on Wednesday, she was happily discharged.
“I did not believe I would ever be released from the hospital,” Zalotsky told Yedioth Ahronoth.
“It’s clear to me that I still have a long way to go, but I am full of hope. What keeps me going is the chance I have to someday walk on my own again with a prosthesis. I am strong and the will to continue living is what keeps me going.”
Zalotsky’s 26-year-old daughter, Suzana, told Yedioth she was thrilled that her mother was finally coming home.
“The doctors did not think she would live at first, they told us these were her last hours,” Suzana said. “I did not believe she would live, and now she is finally smiling and happy.”
During Operation Guardian of the Walls, the 11-day conflict in May, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups hoped to overwhelm the IDF’s Iron Dome defense system with large barrages. A total of 4,360 rockets, mortars and missiles were fired at Israel, an average of nearly 400 each day. The barrages killed 12 civilians in Israel and one soldier while injuring 312.