7/10 hero seriously injured in Gaza fitted with 3D printed skull
A 23-year-old lieutenant has customised 3D-printed plates meshed onto the right side of what remains of his natural skull
A hero of 7 October who saved dozens of people from Kibbutz Be’eri has been fitted with a printed skull after suffering a near-fatal head injury while fighting in Gaza.
Yoni (surname withheld), a 23-year-old lieutenant, now has customised 3D-printed plates meshed onto the right side of what remains of his natural skull, after an IED (improvised explosive device) detonated while he was serving with the IDF in Gaza City in November.
Yoni recalls waking up on 7 October and racing to Kibbutz Be’eri on the Gaza border to evacuate residents under attack. “We fought against terrorists and saved people from their homes. We went house to house to get them out. People didn’t believe we were Israeli soldiers. One even waved a knife at us. There was so much panic but we got people out before it became impossible.”
The following month, stationed in northern Gaza, Yoni suffered his devastating injury. “I was walking through a yard next to a building where intense fighting was taking place when an IED exploded on my right side. I lost consciousness and don’t remember anything else until a week later when I came round from my first surgery at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv.”
The right side of my skull was missing for about two months. I could literally touch my brain.
Yoni’s life-threatening injuries included nails in his legs, arms, lungs and throat. A section of his lung was so badly damaged it had to be removed. Most devastating were the nail injuries to his head, which had entered his skull between the space between his helmet and right ear.
“The doctors had to remove an entire section of my skull… this part,” Yoni says, lowering his head and pointing to the damaged right side. “The right side of my skull was missing for about two months. I could literally touch my brain. Then in February, I had surgery again and was fitted with the printed model skull which is now connected to the remainder of my natural skull.”
The operation, which took around five hours, saw CT scan data being used to create a printed synthetic 3D polymer implant model of Yoni’s skull that perfectly matched the surrounding bone structure. Surgeons then aligned it with the remains of his existing skull.
Yoni has also faced psychological challenges. He says: “I get vivid flashbacks. I often feel like I’m still in Gaza. A nurse came into my room and I interrogated her and asked to see her ID. It’s been a slow process, physically and mentally, but things are getting better with the help of my psychologist and the incredible social workers here at Ichilov Hospital.”
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