There was significant improvement Tuesday in the condition of Ali Kadoura, 33, from the western Galilee village of Nahf — the bus driver who was wounded by shrapnel from a Hezbollah rocket while driving a route in Kiryat Shmona.
“We experienced a great miracle — Ali has begun breathing on his own,” his father, Mahmoud Kadoura, said. “Most of his injuries are to the face, and he was hit by multiple fragments. He arrived at an excellent hospital after being evacuated yesterday by an MDA helicopter, and he was sedated and on a ventilator. Today he was taken off the ventilator and began breathing independently.”
Bus driver Ali Kadoura is evacuated to a northern hospital after he was wounded by Hezbolah rocket shrapnel while driving a route in Kiryat Shmona
(Video Gil Nehushtan)
Family members, who are staying by his bedside at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, said he recognizes them and has begun to recall the moments of his injury.
Kadoura was wounded when a Hezbollah rocket exploded near him and the bus he was driving. Magen David Adom teams that arrived at the scene determined his condition was serious, and he was airlifted to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.
His father added: “Ali left yesterday to work on a route in Kiryat Shmona. He left home in Nahf in the afternoon to transport passengers within the city and then the heavy barrage began. He followed Egged’s instructions, stopped the bus so passengers could take cover, and he is the one who was seriously injured."
Mahmoud expressed gratitude to those who saved his son’s life. “We hope for continued improvement in the coming days," he said. "He survived by a miracle. I saw the pictures of the bus and the damage near where he was sitting in the driver’s seat. It’s a miracle that he recovered so quickly. Many thanks to MDA for providing rapid treatment at the scene, which helped stabilize him for evacuation by helicopter. He then arrived at Rambam, where he is receiving excellent intensive care. Slowly, he will recover.”
In addition to the driver, who is hospitalized in the underground intensive care unit at Rambam, two other civilians were wounded in the incident and were evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in Safed.