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Marty Krall continues to bring us dynamic speakers who are well received by our members. This was
evident Tuesday, December 13th as 350 of our members came out to hear Captain Ziv Shilon, of the Israeli
Defense Forces, story. He is a Magen David Adom Hero and Israel’s Man of the Year. ( of course as Marty
said, his copious e-mails also contributed to the large turn out.) There was a presentation followed by a ques-
tion and answer period.
Captain Shilon’s story is one of immense motivation and will power as he succeeded to rise above
many physical hurdles one would think impossible. His awe inspiring talk focuses on recovery and survival of
his own experiences often facing death.
On October 23, 2012, Ziv arrived at the Gaza Strip Gate Security Fence where his brigade was s
earching out terrorists. As a Commander, he was always leading his soldiers and to his credit not one man
was ever lost. As such, Ziv , who told his men to stand back 250 feet, opened the gate. A massive explosion
occurred– a bomb planted by terrorists was triggered and detonated. Severely injured, his life was changed
forever and the battle for his life began. Miraculously, after a few moments, he opened his eyes to see a
tremendous amount of blood next to him and tried to stop the bleeding , could not understand why he could
not move his arms, then saw part of his right arm lying next to him and discovered the left forearm was gone
also. By sheer willpower he ground the stump of the left arm into the ground to stem that bleeding, picked
up his right arm by his shoulders and left arm stump and ran back to his men 250 yards away–who did not
know what happened. Nearing them, he screamed for help , his medic all of 18 years old never saw such
devastation. Ziv’s sense of humor never left him as he commanded the medic to put a tourniquet on so he
would not bleed to death. Magen David Adom then came into the picture who really saved his life. He was
immediately evacuated to a hospital site, received 56 units of blood( 3.2 gallons), and had his right arm
reattached. His fight to recovery persevered through many surgeries and much physical therapy with feelings
of fear, anger and disappointment. He was after all only 24 years old. At this time, his main support, his
Mother, was battling cancer.
He proceeded to build a new life, his girlfriend who he told, after being injured, to find someone else
did not and stayed with him through his whole ordeal. They were married two years ago and have a little girl.
He is now going to law school. For someone who could not walk for 4 1/2 months now runs a 26.2 mile
Marathon and is working toward the Triathalon.
Magen David Adom provides all the blood supply and medical necessities for the entire Israeli Armed
Forces. They have begun building new facilities 50 feet underground, financed by people such as Bernie
Marcus, where no one can destroy the blood supply or stem cells.
Ziv Shilon is a true hero. An amazing and unbelievable story of survival.
bobbe wiener
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