By Libby Herz – COLlive
“I’ve always had a calling to ease pain and suffering,” says Dr. Zev Neuwirth of South Florida. on Tuesday, May 24th at 5:30pm, United Hatzalah will be honoring this doctor who saved countless Ukrainian lives while under threat of being shot at or bombed. Neuwirth is a man who will do whatever it takes to save as many lives as possible.
Years ago, Neuwirth’s life was idyllic; he was married to an amazing woman and raised four adorable children. The young family lived in Neuwirth’s hometown of Montreal, where he was CEO and president of a successful jewelry business.
As the founder of Hatzolah in Montreal, the proud husband and father also made time to dabble in his passion for medicine. But just a few years later, the dream was shattered.
It began when his wife, Devorie Neuwirth (nee Bloch), neared forty, and she began to complain of debilitating aches. She went for a routine check-up and came home with the worst news a husband could hear. Devory, his beloved wife, was diagnosed with glioblastoma – a malignant brain cancer.
Neuwirth’s life was turned on its head, becoming a tail-spin of doctor’s visits. For eighteen months, he focused only on caring for his wife until one day in 2009, Devorie’s soul returned to her Maker. “You can’t put into words what it means to lose a best friend, your partner, your world,” Neuwirth says.
At his wife’s deathbed, Neuwirth made a decision that changed the course of his life forever. “More than anything, I wanted to heal, cure, and care. I wanted to relieve pain and suffering.” So, at the age of forty, Neuwirth picked up his children, aged seven through seventeen, and moved them to Miami so he could attend medical school.
“Instead of remaining to be dragged down in sorrow and heartbreak,” he says, “I wanted to rebuild and produce another life. I wanted to wake up every morning and do what I love.”
And he did. In 2014, Neuwirth graduated with honors as an Internal Medicine doctor and hospital specialist. Along with working in the hospital, he opened a community-based practice where was able to save many lives.
But still, Neuwirth was unsatisfied. There was another dream he had yet to fulfill. “My father’s family were survivors of concentration camps and my mother’s family is from Israel. There was a lot of awareness of World War II, the liberation of the Kosel, and the Six Day War.” Neuwirth could not shake the dream of becoming a soldier.
After having completed medical school, Neuwirth was commissioned as a United States Naval Officer. Over the next six years, he served as Lieutenant Commander and Senior Medical Officer-in-Charge of the 4th Civil Affairs Group, United States Marine Corps. In this capacity, Neuwirth was trained to enter battle fields in war torn countries to render and establish medical care to military personnel as well as civilian population. Neuwirth provided relief for refugees of war and natural disasters, proudly serving for over 6 years.
At the early onset of Covid-19 two years ago, Neuwirth received a phone call from Rabbi Zalman Lipskar, Associate Rabbi of The Shul of Bal Harbour Florida, who needed Neuwirth’s expertise regarding Covid-related symptoms which took an aggressive turn. The patient in question was Eli Beer, founder and president of United Hatzalah of Israel.
Neuwirth rushed Beer to the University of Miami Hospital, and months later, after having been on a ventilator for an extensive period along with numerous complications, Beer miraculously recovered. Thus began a long-standing bond between the two Hatzalah powerhouses.
Time passed, and on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. Ukrainian civilians were left stranded with no access to essential medications and medical attention. That’s when Neuwirth received a phone call from Beer.
Beer was putting together a team of medical staff to the Ukrainian border of Moldova.
“You wanna go?” Beer asked Neuwirth.
“I’m already packing and I’m on my way,” was Neuwirth’s immediate response. “And I’m taking my two sons.”
Neuwirth’s sons, Motki and Rummi, run logistics and operations for their father, and regularly accompany him on medical missions around the globe. Quickly, the father and sons team packed medical supplies, medications, defibrillators, trauma and resuscitation equipment. They also packed their personal protective gear.
After a thirty-one hour journey to Moldova, the Neuwirths were greeted by a steady flow of refugees, many who were sick and elderly. Civilians of all ages flocked to the border on foot, via train, car, busses and even horse-and-buggy. They suffered frostbite, dehydration, and sickness.
“Ukraine had no medications,” Neuwirth says. “People had chronic medical conditions that were not properly managed. It was a war zone and there were traumatic injuries, but there was also high blood pressure, thyroid conditions, diabetes, infection, and a need for proper ongoing care. People with chronic medical conditions left with literally the shirts on their backs. No meds, no money. They were scared. Petrified.”
The Neuwirths set up a command system on the top floor of a shul in Chişnău and were joined by United Hatzalah.
The Ukrainian winter was cold and snowy. Bombs went off constantly, and teams mandated to enter Ukraine rounded up civilians in need of care. Military personnel were restricted from entering Ukraine and Neuwirth was restless. “It was difficult to see people suffering and not try to provide them with treatment and medical care,” he says.
Because Neuwirth had just received his military Honorable Discharge, he was no longer officially military personnel. This meant he was allowed to forge into the war zone. “Between medicine and military, I felt it was the perfect calling.”
Neuwirth purchased an ambulance and with his sons, he developed the first running medical treatment and evacuation ambulance in Ukraine. The family was regularly under missile attacks and gunfire, but they did not stop.
“We got a call about an elderly man who fell down a makeshift ladder because his stairs were bombed out,” says Neuwirth. Neuwirth and his team stabilized the man, and brought him to the border where United Hatzalah continued with his ongoing care.
For five-and-a-half weeks, the family triaged, treated and shuttled patient after patient from Ukraine to Hatzalah headquarters in Moldova. At times, Neuwirth accompanied critical patients on the United Hatzalah arranged flights to Israel where he loaded the plane with medical supplies. Then, he would immediately fly back to Ukraine, ready for fresh missions.
Many times, he would offer medical supplies to Ukrainian soldiers, and teach them how to use it to save their peers.
“Once,” says Neuwirth, “I was in a Ukrainian city and curfew started. Anybody out on the street was liable to get shot. My sons and I hid under stairs to try and duck curfew. But one time a soldier caught us. He held an AK-47 to my chest. So I showed him the medical supplies given to me by Hatzalah.”
“‘Here’s medicine,” I said slowly. ‘Gloves for you. Medicine for you.’”
The soldier eventually understood that Neuwirth was an ally and eased the gun from Neuwirth’s chest. Neuwirth and his sons trained the soldier and his friends how to apply combat medicine, how to stabilize, and how to resuscitate.
Through their medical supplies, the Neuwirths came in close contact with battalion commanders and military hospitals, bringing them surgical supplies and bandages. “We were always under fire from Russian missile attacks,” Neuwirth says.
Once, on a tip, the Neuwirths followed back roads which led them to a woman who had just given birth in a bombed-out building. She was alone with her young son and elderly parents. It was after curfew and the family were too scared to join the Neuwirths in their foreign ambulance.
“We had a very small closing window,” Neuwirth says. An air-raid siren went off. Explosions blasted. Finally, holding her tiny child, her face withered in pain, the woman climbed aboard the ambulance. Her son, parents, and dog boarded too, sitting on the floor amongst the stretcher, IV, and medical equipment.
Neuwirth is proud to have established and manned the first civilian and foreign volunteer ambulance in Ukraine. “It was about saving a neshama wherever they were,” he says.
In his life, Neuwirth had many opportunities to help others, and he has been given plenty of brochos in return. “Boruch Hashem I was able to remarry to Chaya Eber,” he says. “So I’ve been blessed to have two lives.”
Neuwirth understands the beauty, pain, and fragility of life. That’s why it’s his mission to save as many of them as he can.
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Dr. Zev Neuwirth will be honored on Tuesday, May 24th at 5:30pm, at United Hatzalah of Israel’s 3rd New York Gala, at Pier Sixty, Chelsea Piers.
Click here for more info and to RSVP.
this is amazing.
very proud of you dear nephew Dr. Zev Neuwirth. love uou dear Zevi.
this is mind blowing. may Hashem bless Dr Neuwirth with tremendous revealed Bracha.
Devorie would be so proud!
Zevi your one of a kind
ה׳ ישמור צאתך ובואיך מעתה ועד עולם!
So inspirational.
Your old buddy from Motown, class of ‘87.
Ph