9-year-old Ashdod girl dies after suffering cardiac arrest during rocket siren
Father of Tamar Haya Torphiashvili eulogizes his daughter as an ‘angel’ and God-given ‘gift for nine years and 10 months’
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
A nine-year-old girl died on Saturday a week after she suffered cardiac arrest when an incoming rocket siren was activated in her southern port city of Ashdod.
Assuta Medical Center announced the death of the girl over the weekend, later named as Tamar Haya Torphiashvili.
In a post on Facebook, her father, Avi, thanked the Jewish people in Israel and around the world for their prayers.
“Tamar was an angel. God gave us a gift for nine years and 10 months,” he wrote.
In addition to physical harm caused by explosions and shrapnel, the sound of rocket impacts, interceptions and sirens can cause anxiety attacks and shock.
Dr. Noa Rosenfeld, the manager of the emergency children’s ward at Assuta, told the Ynet news site that incidents of heart attacks are rare, but some people are “very sensitive to adrenaline in high doses that can cause them a cardiac problem.”
“The incident itself occurred during the siren. The girl and the family went to the shelter and she lost consciousness,” Rosenfeld said, adding that she was treated with prolonged resuscitation throughout the week.
Thousands of rockets have been fired at Israel since the beginning of the war, which erupted when 2,500 Hamas terrorists rampaged through southern communities on October 7, slaughtering over 1,400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and abducting at least 230 people to the Strip.
Israel has responded with intensive strikes on Gaza and a gradually expanding ground operation, declaring its intention to eradicate the terror group that rules the Strip.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
