'Wanted to live.' Melina with his family
Photo: Zoom 77
The fight is over
Yona Melina passes away decade after Jerusalem terror attack leaves him paralyzed from neck down, fighting for his life. His attorney: ' Yona loved the country very much. You'd expect him to turn his back on the country after the horrible attack he underwent, but he acted in the exact opposite manner'
Yona Melina, who sustained the most severe injuries recorded during the intifada, died at the age of 38 in Shiba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Monday after his condition took a turn for the worse during the past two weeks.
Melina, who sustained his injuries during a Jerusalem terror attack 10 years ago, was able to communicate with his family members through facial expressions. As his condition began to deteriorate, Melina asked his attorney, Tzahi Hushan, to prevent doctors from hooking him up to any life-support systems.
Although his condition worsened upon his admittance to the Sheba Medical Center, doctors chose not to connect him to a dialyses machine. He died while still connected to artificial breathing and feeding machines.
"Yona loved the country very much. You'd expect him to turn his back (on the country) after the horrible attack he underwent, but he acted in the exact opposite manner," Hushan said. "He wanted to live here, and he wanted to die here."
Nine years ago the High Court ruled in favor of permitting Melina to reside in a private apartment so he may receive the best possible care. Since then he lived in a small flat in Kiryat Ono, near the hospital.
"His condition did not require that he be connected to a dialyses machine, so we chose not to do so," Professor Ehud Grossman, the head of Internal Unit D at Sheba Medical Center, told Ynet.
"We did not disconnect him from the life support systems, as there was no court order that instructed us to do so, and we did everything we could to keep him alive."
Melina, who spoke nine languages, was paralyzed from the neck down and was unable to breath on his own.
He immigrated to the country from Switzerland on his own as a young man, and was on his way to a Hebrew lesson at Hebrew University when the terror attack changed his life forever.
Melina's mother, Eva, said that during his stay in Switzerland following the injury all Melina wanted to do was die, but he had a change of heart when acquaintances from Israel came to visit him
"When he began thinking of going home (to Israel), it was a turning point," she said. "Ever since then he wanted to live."
