Israeli nurse breastfeeds hospitalised Palestinian baby

An Israeli nurse, who found herself treating a Palestinian baby who’d been injured in a car accident, provided him with medical help and breastfed him.

Nine-month-old Yaman was injured when a car he and his parents were in collided with a bus in the occupied West Bank. His father died in the accident and his mother suffered serious injuries leaving her unable to care for her son.

Admitted to Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center in Jerusalem on 2 June, the exclusively breastfed child cried for hunger for seven hours and refused to accept a bottle.

His relatives asked Israeli nurse Ola Ostrowski-Zak if she could find someone to nurse him.

A mother of an 18-month-old, Ostrowski-Zak immediately put herself forward.

That was my first instinct,” Ostrowski-Zak told Today. “I thought to myself, ‘I must help this baby’.”

“I felt a unique connection with him,” she said. “It felt pretty similar to feeding my own son Ayam.”

At the end of her shift Ostrowski-Zak took to Facebook to find other mothers who could help care for Yaman. She said she received more than a thousand likes and responses.

“The human connection is very strong,” she explained.

Yaman was discharged two days later and returned to his family in occupied Hebron. His mum remains in a critical but stable condition.