Nadia was screaming and writhing on the ground in pain when her mother, Watfa, who was working with her in the fields, ran to her daughter. Their screams attracted the attention of a couple of Moshav men who were also working in the distant fields. They rushed the stricken young woman to the Moshav’s medical clinic and from there a military ambulance was summoned.

Within minutes, an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) ambulance arrived with a driver and paramedic (both armed and in IDF uniform) and assisted the rapidly deteriorating Nadia into the vehicle together with her mother. They sped north through the Jordan Valley and by the time they reached the Israeli city of Beit Shean, Nadia was vomiting blood and losing consciousness. It is important to note that there were no delays whatsoever at the Israeli security checkpoints along the valley route and the ambulance with the two Palestinian women inside was rushed through. After another half hour the ambulance arrived to our ER and Nadia was then totally unconscious with severe internal and external bleeding.

Among the deadly effects of this snake’s envenomation is hemostatic failure or a breakdown of the bodies coagulation mechanism. The young Arab woman was treated with antivenom and admitted for hospitalization. The adult ICU (Intensive Care Unit) was full to capacity so the woman was rushed to our Pediatric ICU where she was still being treated when I walked in to interview her today, May 21^st. Her mother, Watfa was by her side and a young Muslim woman whose infant daughter was being treated less than two meters away acted as my interpreter.

After introducing myself, I asked Watfa, ‘‘Were you afraid of traveling in an IDF vehiclewith armed soldiers?’‘

Before she answered, she had Nadia call her Uncle who gave them permission to speak freely with me. It was clear that they would not have done so without their male relative’s approval. ‘‘Not for one second,’‘ she answered with her index finger in the air to make her point. ‘‘Those men, including the Jewish farmers, came to help save my daughter and I only felt gratitude and never any fear.’‘

‘‘How do you feel here in an Israeli hospital surrounded by Israeli Jews and Arabs?’‘ I asked, referring to the multiethnic staff and crowd gathering around us.

Nadia smiled and Watfa looked around her and then raised her eyes towards heaven before answering softly, ‘‘You saved my daughter’s life. I have three other daughters and two sons and I do not fear your people. I bless them.’‘

‘‘If I publicly tell your story, are you afraid that the Palestinian Authority will harm you or your daughter?’ I asked, knowing how most Palestinians refuse to speak openly of their life-saving experiences at Jewish hands.

Watfa looked to me and the others nearby and answered, ‘‘You saved my daughter’s life. I am not afraid of the Palestinian Authority. All people need to know the truth.’‘

Today, Nadia is being transferred to a bed in our Internal Medicine department and in a few days she will be home with her family. Nobody has any illusions about their inability to pay for the medical treatment the young dying woman received. The Palestinian Authority will continue to poison the media about Israel, while in real life – here at eye level, Jews continue to quietly neutralize poisons of another lethal nature.