Gone, but Certainly Not Forgotten!

As the last of the former hostages headed to a hotel in the metropolitan Tel Aviv area just before the Shavuot holiday last week, the indefatigable members of Sheba’s patient experience/community relations and marketing teams, tidied up the specially designated rooms, which served as an oasis of sanity for the former hostages and their loved ones, in anticipation of another release.

It was also a moment, when the doting medical teams were able to take a deep breath and return to their regular daily activities, hoping that they would be called upon once more to tend to the physical and emotional needs of the brave citizens who endured horrific conditions during their captivity.

Despite the fact that the former hostages had left the Sheba compound, the media frenzy surrounding their rescue and treatment continued unabated. Sheba Medical Center received unprecedented coverage in both the Israeli and global media, with Prof. Itai Pessach, the Director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital and head of the special medical team, which treated the hostages, conducting both press briefings and exclusive interviews, which you can read about in this edition.

The coverage of this daring rescue and its aftermath spurred unique coverage in different parts of the world, running the gamut from the New York Times to Saudi Arabia’s Arab News. Despite the harsh coverage of the hostage rescue in almost every part of the pan-Arab media, the Arab News coverage in reality, serves as a future beacon of hope in the region.