The staff calls them “Bert and Ernie” or “Fried and Eid.” Ahmed Eid, 65, is a Muslim from the Galilee village of Dabburiya and Elchanan Fried, 41, is a Jew from Petah Tikva in central Israel. Eid is the head of surgery at Hadassah University Hospital in Northeast Jerusalem, and Fried is head of the intensive-care unit.
This past month the two have worked side by side during a wave of escalated violence in Israel, which has often involved young people and even children.
On October 12th, a thirteen-year-old Jewish boy was stabbed in East Jerusalem and was brought into the hospital – it didn’t look good.
When the teen stabilized, Dr. Ahmed Eid went to the waiting room to speak with the patient’s father, an orthodox Jew.
“I told him my name is Ahmed Eid, I’m director of surgery,” says the surgeon. “Then I made a joke. I said, ‘An Ahmed stabbed your son, and an Ahmed is going to save your son.”
The teen lived. Indeed!
