‘My life was given back to me’: Pregnant woman wounded in terror attack speaks out
Adi Zohar describes being shot and crawling on the ground begging for help, says doctor told her she and her baby were saved by her maintaining consciousness
Adi Zohar, a pregnant woman who was injured in a terror attack last week near Ma’ale Adumim, told media outlets on Sunday that it was a miracle she and her baby had survived her being shot.
Speaking to media from Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem where she is currently in recovery, the five-month pregnant mother of one said that she was shot while traveling on the road she takes daily to get to work.
While Zohar had not been worried about terror attacks along that route before, she said she now realized that they could happen anywhere.
“I was sitting in traffic and talking on the phone when I noticed the car in front of me suddenly hitting the one in front of it,” she recounted. “I told my aunt that there had been a weird accident, and seconds later, a terrorist exited the car like a madman and I immediately saw his gun.”
She went on to describe feeling trapped in her car as she made eye contact with the terrorist and tried to slide down in her seat to keep the baby safe.
“A few seconds later, I saw my shirt was full of blood, but I hadn’t felt the bullet,” she recounted.
It was only later, when she saw footage of the attack, that Zohar realized how close the terrorist actually was to her as she got out of the car and tried to get help from other commuters on the road.
“I crawled on the ground to try and get to other cars, but because I was on all fours and everyone was scared, they didn’t open their doors,” she said.
Eventually, a woman saw that Zohar needed help and let her into her car.
“Usually, I’m a very hysterical person, but in that moment I was calm,” Zohar said, remembering how she told the woman that she had been shot and was pregnant.
“It was important to me that people got the message so that I could be taken care of as quickly as possible. I told them what week I was in and I wasn’t feeling movement [from the baby],” she said.
“I really thought that was my last moment, and I thought about how my son is only two and would have to go on without me,” Zohar added.
The next thing Zohar remembers, she said, is waking up in the hospital. The doctors told her that she had been hit by shrapnel in a place that was very dangerous for her and the baby.
“It was definitely a miracle,” she told the media. “God was with me every moment. In retrospect, one of the doctors told me that the fact that I hadn’t lost consciousness probably saved the baby.”
Four days after the attack, Zohar said she is recovering well and that she and the baby are okay.
“My life was given back to me,” she said, expressing gratitude to the medical staff and the civilians at the scene who had helped her.
Zohar was one of 10 people who were wounded in the shooting attack on Thursday in which three terrorists opened fire on commuters near Ma’ale Adumim. Twenty-six-year-old Matan Elmaliah was also murdered in the attack.
Two of the terrorists were shot at the scene, and the third initially escaped but was caught sometime later and arrested.