(PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE)

Israelis traveling to Sinai are familiar with the travel warning of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, but now they have to add a camel warning. For Orlya Braun, 64, who treats people with disabilities, this is a day of personal independence.

She fell two weeks ago from a camel that went wild during an organized trip to Sinai at the beginning of the immigration to Santa Catarina and underwent two urgent and complex surgeries in the orthopedic unit of Kaplan Medical Center in Rehovot, under the direction of Prof. Yona Kosashvili, to fix a significant fracture in the cervical spine. The two surgeries performed by Dr. Amir Sharoni, a leading spinal column specialist, and Kaplan’s extensive and skilled medical staff, saved her life and prevented possible paralysis. Oralia was transferred to a long and lengthy rehabilitation process in the coming weeks, which will enable her to return to normal routine life in the future.

Orlya Braun, 64, a resident of Yavneh, left with a group of Israelis on an organized tour of the Sinai during Pesach. During their arrival in Santa Caterina it was possible to climb a mountain on foot or on a camel. Orlya preferred the second option because it was a long walk. After the climb of the Israelis on the camels they began to run wild and then the person who held Oralya’s camel released the grip and went to calm the other camels.

“Immediately after he released the camel that Orlya was sitting on, he ran wild and threw her down hard on her head and she lost consciousness from the intensity of the fall,” Liora recalls. “The locals picked her up to the ambulance because she had no access to the place where she was injured. The locals offered to take her to a hospital in Cairo, but she asked for medical treatment in Israel. “They brought her to the Egyptian border, and I went to take her when she injured her head and we arrived at night in the emergency room in Kaplan. We are confident regarding the medical staff here.

“As soon as Orlya arrived at the emergency room, an extensive medical team began to provide her with quick and effective medical treatment to prevent irreversible damage. The team was shocked that Orlya was fully aware of her condition, and she was immediately taken to the operating room, and from that moment on I reassured her that she was in good hands and that there was someone to rely on,” concludes her sister Liora.

Dr. Amir Sharoni, a leading orthopedic surgeon and specialist in the field of spinal surgery, said that Orlya arrived at the Kaplan emergency room with a cervical collar many hours after a strong fall from a camel in the Sinai. “She arrived with neurological compromise including weak hands, difficulty standing, and severe neck pain. After imaging, she was transferred to the operating room due to a herniation of a vertebral column and a fracture in the first cervical vertebrae. In the operating room, it was first connected to a tensile device to replace the vertebrae, and then we performed two operations; one by one to fix two vertebrae in the neck and spine. The later analysis was a complex back-up approach. She recovered and returned to a stable state and began to walk on her own. “Dr. Sharoni added that Orlya is expected to go a long way in physical rehabilitation and occupational therapy.”

“I would like to personally thank,” Dr. Sharoni said, “for a very extensive and skilled array of orthopedic surgeons, surgeons, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and nurses specializing in spinal cord injury, whose professionalism and dedicated care have improved Oralya’s functional status.”

She is continuing the process of rehabilitation of fine motor, walking and balance, in order to return to normal life.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Kaplan Hospital Spokesman)