The family of little Shai needs help

This story began with an ordinary phone call from kindergarten.
“They called and told me to pick up my child — he wasn’t feeling well and complained about his ear,” Shai’s mother recalls. Of course, she came immediately and took him home.

Shai was crying, he had a fever, and his ear hurt. “Probably an ear infection,” the family thought. They began treatment, but instead of getting better, things got worse: vomiting began, then seizures. Frightened, the parents rushed to Terem. Tests were done, and they were sent home with instructions to buy ear drops and start a course of antibiotics.

“But my heart wasn’t at peace — I felt something was wrong,” Shai’s mother says, quietly wiping away tears. The fever didn’t go down, the pain didn’t stop. Then Shai stopped responding to questions. “In that moment I understood — this is very serious.” In the hospital, the diagnosis was confirmed: meningitis. The doctors said it plainly — just a few more hours, and it could have been too late.

Shai spent two days with his mother in intensive care. Then they were transferred to a regular ward, where they stayed for another eight days. At home, Shai’s little sister was waiting — she also needed care and attention. Their father was torn between the hospital, the children, and his job. The family was losing workdays, living in constant fear — but at the time, they thought this was the worst of it. After discharge, Shai’s mother stayed home with him for several more days — she was afraid to send a weakened child back to kindergarten. These days were unpaid: Shai’s father had already used all his sick leave. And soon, layoffs began at the mother’s workplace — she was the first to lose her job.

The family had always lived modestly, carefully planning every expense. But now they were left with a single income — and no understanding of when Shai’s mother would be able to return to work at all. Still, she didn’t give up. Within a few days, she found a new job. Shai returned to kindergarten. For two weeks, it seemed that life was slowly going back to normal.

Then the phone rang again. The teacher said the boy looked unwell. The parents picked him up and went to the family doctor. “A virus,” he said.

By afternoon, the fever spiked. Shai cried and called for his mother. She notified work that she couldn’t come in for the evening shift. The new employer didn’t accept that — they scheduled a shimua, a dismissal hearing. The next day, Shai suddenly worsened: severe headache, vomiting. The parents rushed to the doctor. From there, an ambulance took them away — again with suspected meningitis. Hospital again, tests, treatment.

“We were discharged on November 4, and on December 3 we were back in the hospital. I felt like I had never left,” his mother says. During that time, she lost her job completely. Now Shai is at home. He is receiving IV antibiotics. The family is still waiting for lab results — and answers to the main question: why did the meningitis return?

These months have been a double blow. A child’s illness and total financial instability. Lost income, missed work shifts, constant trips to the hospital, medications — all of it fell on the shoulders of parents who were already living very modestly.

Today they are forced to make impossible choices: what to pay first — the rent or food. Utility debts have already accumulated. And Shai especially needs proper nutrition now, to recover after the illness. His sister does too.