On Monday night, paramedic Oshrit Hadad will light a ceremonial torch at the State of Israel’s official 76th Independence Day ceremony as a representative of Magen David Adom.
On October 7, 22-year-old Hadad was instrumental in setting up a field hospital at Shuva Junction, where she and her MDA colleagues treated many injured people.
Hadad recalls one patient in particular: “There was a seriously injured soldier who grabbed my hand and asked me to say the Shema Yisrael prayer with him,” referring to a prayer said in times of crisis and before death.
Hadad was a close friend of Amit Man, the MDA paramedic murdered by terrorists as she treated casualties in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7. “I miss everything about Amit,” says Hadad. “She was a very special person.”
“I made a decision that every life that I will save, every patient I attend to, and every person who I am able to help, I’ll be doing it in memory of Amit,” Hadad said about her friend.
Hadad will represent MDA’s 35,000 staff and volunteers, as she lights the Yom HaAtzma’ut ceremonial torch.
