Shira Yael Ish-Ran, the 21-year-old pregnant woman who was shot by Palestinian terrorists along with her husband and five other people at a bus stop near the town of Ofra in Samaria, is reported to be in improved medical condition on Tuesday, but her baby—delivered by emergency Caesarean section at just 30 weeks gestation—has suffered a deterioration.
“Today she woke up and asked for me,” Shira’s mother, Liora Silberstein, said on Monday evening in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.
Silberstein and her husband, Chaim, talked with press at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center, appearing emotional.
“It was a nightmare coming true,” said Liora Silberstein. “You know how you are always on the other side hearing about terrorist attacks, it is always happening to someone else? I was just having a regular evening, I was working at home, and my husband came in and said there had been a terrorist attack, and we had to go to the hospital. I took my telephone and my siddur [prayer book], and we just ran out of the house.”
The Silbersteins were contacted by Shira’s husband, Amichai Yishai Ish-Ran, who told them about the shooting. Amichai and Shira were married for just nine months at the time of the attack and were attempting to get a ride to their home in Elon Moreh from the bus stop outside of Ofra.
At the hospital, the Silbersteins were alerted to their daughter’s condition and told she would undergo an emergency C-section, as well as emergency surgery for her bullet wounds.
According to Liora, the surgery lasted from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. and involved a team of 20 people.
Moreover, there were moments during the surgery in which they nearly lost Shira. Liora told reporters that the extent of Shira’s injuries were not known for an hour-and-a-half, during which time they feared the worst. They were then told that the bullet miraculously missed all of Shira’s major organs, and the team was able to stabilize their daughter.
Except for a brief moment on Monday in which Shira was allowed to wake up and make contact with her worried parents, the new mother has been on a high dose of anesthesia to help her with the pain and to aid in healing.
The young couple was not made aware that her son was delivered, nor that he is in critical condition and on a ventilator, having suffered a possible brain injury as a result of oxygen deprivation stemming from his mother’s loss of blood due to the attack.
“We just keep praying for her recovery and the recovery of her baby,” said Liora Silberstein. “They will need a lot of prayers. He was born in the 30th week, and she lost a lot of blood—this little family needs a lot of strength in the next few weeks and months.”
She asked that supporters continue to pray for her daughter, Shira Yael bat Liora Sarah, and for her son, Tinok ben Shira Yael.
The baby was transferred to the neonatal intensive-care unit immediately following delivery and was initially stable, but his condition has reportedly worsened since then.