On Sept. 1, Shahar Davidov gave birth to her third child at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The midwife who delivered her baby was her older sister, Zohar — an intimate family moment that brought full circle a story of tragedy, hope and renewal.
In 2009, Shahar was seriously injured in a car crash when her former partner veered off the road and struck a tree.
A doctor who arrived at the scene pronounced her dead. But paramedic Muawiya Kabha, who was on his way to another emergency, heard over the radio about a fatal crash involving two teenagers and decided to change course and head to the scene.
Despite Shahar having been declared dead, Kabha continued fighting to save her, performing CPR for 40 minutes until her pulse returned.
She was rushed to Rabin Medical Center and required another round of resuscitation on the way. By then, radio stations were already reporting a fatal crash in which a 17-year-old girl had been killed. Shahar’s sister Zohar arrived at the crash scene and watched as her younger sister was taken away in an ambulance.
“The paramedic was on his way to another call, and the doctor who had pronounced me dead asked him to treat the other person, who was only lightly injured — but he chose to fight for me,” Shahar said.
“We were on vacation in Tiberias when one of Shahar’s friends called us from her phone to tell us about the accident. We immediately packed our things and headed out,” recalled Shahar’s father, Yitzhak “Ika” Kugelmas.
“We were silent. We didn’t talk and we didn’t turn on the radio — and luckily we didn’t, because they were already reporting that someone had been killed in the crash.
“We arrived at Rabin, and the nurse who met us said her condition was extremely serious,” he said. “I went in to see Shahar, and I could barely recognize her.”
After two weeks under sedation and on a ventilator, Shahar regained consciousness and began a long rehabilitation. During her recovery, she managed to complete her high school matriculation exams and later enlisted in the Israeli military.
‘Everything was planned so Zohar would deliver my baby’
Seventeen years have passed since a doctor pronounced Shahar dead on the side of the road. She went on to build a family and have two children.
Zohar, who had stood at the crash scene and watched the ambulance drive away with her younger sister, eventually chose to study nursing. She later became a midwife at Rabin Medical Center — the same hospital where Shahar was taken on the night of the crash.
Shahar Davidov and her sister Zohar in the delivery room
(Photo: Rabin Medical Center)
Earlier this month, the sisters’ story came full circle in the delivery room.
“This was my third delivery, and thank God, after two births that were anything but easy, this one went smoothly,” Shahar said.
“It was incredibly emotional to have my older sister Zohar as my midwife. She gave me a healing experience with an easy, quick delivery, and the recovery has been easy as well. In fact, I waited for her to finish her midwifery training before getting pregnant,” she admitted with a smile.
“When I gave birth for the first time, Zohar was still working in the neonatal intensive care unit where my son was hospitalized for a week. This time, she was part of the birth itself, right there in the delivery room. Everything was planned so that she would be the one to deliver my baby.”