Jewish community embraces Israeli patient


		Karen Ducey / P-I
	Galina Ashurov gets a supportive hug Thursday from Margot Kravette of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle. Ashurov has a tumor and traveled here from Israel with her daughter, Rina Ashurov, to get it removed. Kravette and others are helping her out.

Now Ashurov is in Seattle for a brain bypass, an unusual surgery pioneered at Harborview Medical Center, to remove the tumor.

"She wonders why God punishes her," her daughter, Rina, said Thursday. "She says, 'God gives struggles to people who can cope.' "

Led by Margot Kravette, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom in Seattle and a physician-relations manager at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, a corps of local Jewish volunteers is there to help Ashurov

The volunteers are providing meals, friendship and other support for Ashurov, 47, and her 23-year-old daughter, both of Haifa, on the Mediterranean coast north of Tel Aviv.

Kravette got the idea for the ministry a dozen years ago when she accompanied a family member to Houston for medical treatment. They found themselves alone in a strange city.

She knew the same thing happened to patients who came for treatment at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and thought, "That shouldn't happen in Seattle."

Kravette organized 10 friends from her synagogue to cook meals and visit patients. Now 50 to 60 people, mostly from Beth Shalom, help out.

"I have this network," she said. "People know to call me."

She heard about Ashurov through a friend with a connection to the Israel Crisis Management Center. The center, located in Tel Aviv and known as SELAH, is a volunteer network that gives financial and therapeutic support to immigrants affected by tragedy or terror.

"SELAH was formed out of Galina's circumstances," said Stan Steinreich of New Jersey, who serves as the network's spokesman in the U.S.

David Landsman, a member of Herzl-Ner Tamid Conservative Synagogue on Mercer Island, volunteered with SELAH over the past several years during his spare time on business trips to Israel.

He spearheaded efforts at his synagogue to raise more than $75,000 to help 11 distressed families in Israel. The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle also supported SELAH.

During a trip to Israel last month, Landsman was introduced to Ashurov by SELAH Executive Director Ruth Bar-on.

"Equally as important as finding the right surgeon was finding the right community to provide the support for Galina both before and after the surgery," Bar-on said. "The Seattle community has been wonderful and we are truly grateful."

Ashurov's husband was slain while their family was on an evening walk in downtown Haifa less than two weeks after they immigrated to Israel. Rina, who was 9 at the time, and her 2-year-old brother also witnessed the slaying.

She said the gunman, who was captured after another shooting, said he needed to kill two people to be initiated into a terrorist group. He was convicted and is serving a life sentence, Ashurov said.

Four years ago, Ashurov started experiencing double vision and lost sight in her left eye. An MRI discovered a tumor, believed to be benign, at the base of her brain, surrounding the carotid artery.

"She's convinced the tumor is related to the stress" of her husband's slaying, her daughter said.

With the help of SELAH, Ashurov underwent radiation treatment in London. The tumor shrank, but it since has doubled in size. Further non-surgical treatment is no longer an option.

"It has to be excised," said Dr. Laligam Sekhar, who will perform two eight-hour surgeries on Ashurov next week. "If you remove (the carotid artery to get to the tumor) without replacing it, the patient will have a stroke and die."

During the brain bypass, a procedure he pioneered, Sekhar said he will take a radial artery from Ashurov's forearm and a saphenous vein from her leg. The veins will connect blood vessels in her neck to her brain, bypassing the severed carotid artery.

Sekhar said the procedure, which he performs nearly 20 times a year at Harborview has a 99 percent success rate.

Ashurov is counting on it. "I hope that with the help of God and good people and a strong doctor, I will be cured."

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