Letter From the Director
Back to Life, One Goal at a Time
In early August, I met Elad and his mother, Ayelet, in the ALYN patient van. Elad was returning to the hospital from an outside appointment as part of his care at ALYN. A few weeks earlier, he had been hit by a car while walking to a soccer field near his home to meet friends. He suffered multiple fractures to his pelvis and arm, as well as contusions to his brain. With his Bar Mitzvah only a month away at the time of the accident, he was facing a long road of rehabilitation.
Elad had been preparing for his Bar Mitzvah long before the accident. But after his brain injury, he wasn't sure he would still be able to go through with it. He was spending long hours every day in rehabilitation, yet he was encouraged to keep practicing and working toward his Bar Mitzvah.
Two days after I met him, Elad became a Bar Mitzvah.
Ayelet sent me beautiful photos and videos from the celebration, and I was struck by what that moment represented. Elad had worked toward a goal that, just weeks earlier, he wasn't sure he could reach—and he had. He still had a long road of rehabilitation ahead of him, but he had reached an important milestone in the life he was determined to get back to.
That is what pediatric rehabilitation at ALYN is ultimately about. The goal is not simply to help a child heal. It is to help each child move forward toward the fullest life possible.
For one child, that might mean returning to school. For another, it might mean learning to communicate, gaining independence, playing with friends, participating in family life or discovering a new way to do something they love. Every child starts from a different place, and every child's path is different. But the goal is the same: to help that child live as fully and independently as possible.
For Elad, one part of that life was becoming a Bar Mitzvah. Standing at the Torah, surrounded by his family, only weeks after being hit by a car, was an extraordinary accomplishment. But it was also a reminder of what rehabilitation is really about: not simply recovering from an injury, but working toward the life a child wants to live.
The children who come through ALYN's doors are not defined by their injuries or disabilities. They are children with families, friendships, hopes, dreams and futures.
Their goal is to go to school, play with friends, celebrate milestones, discover what they can do, dream about the future—and simply be kids. Because at ALYN, rehabilitation isn't the destination. Getting back to life is.
