A Life Saved, a Life Rebuilt: Stroke Survivor Completes Intensive Rehabilitation at Reuth

When 45-year-old Idan Moznik set out for work one morning, he had no reason to imagine his life was about to change forever. In the middle of driving through an interchange, Idan suddenly suffered a stroke behind the wheel. For an hour and a half, he remained trapped in his car, unable to call for help and unable to move, until a passing police officer noticed him and saved his life.

“The stroke caught me completely off guard,” Idan recalls. “In an instant, I felt extreme dizziness, everything went black and my body just stopped responding. I could not reach my phone to call for help. I could barely open the window and try to wave at other drivers. For an hour and a half, I was stuck on the side of the road until a police patrol passed by, stopped and came to help me. I was evacuated by ambulance to the hospital, where I underwent catheterization.”

Three months later, Idan arrived at Reuth Tel Aviv Rehabilitation Hospital. He was confined to a wheelchair, suffering from severe right-side paralysis, and unable to speak or swallow.

At Reuth, Idan began an intensive, multidisciplinary rehabilitation program that included medical and nursing care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, nutrition and dietetics, social work, complementary rehabilitative medicine, and emotional support.

“The hardest part was the emotional struggle,” he says. “I could not shower or dress on my own. People had to lift me, walk with me, everything. It was awful. But then I realized that I am a partner in this process and I must be active and change my mindset. I went through a long and meaningful rehabilitation here, and regaining my independence is the greatest thing that has happened to me. There is no greater satisfaction. The team at Reuth is incredible, and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart. They taught me everything from the beginning.”

Just before completing his inpatient rehabilitation, Idan experienced an emotional full-circle moment when the officer who saved his life, Senior Staff Sergeant Major Ivan Popov of the Israel National Traffic Police, came to the ward to meet him for the first time.

“It is a powerful sense of closure,” Idan said. “If he had not arrived that day, I would not be here. I will be forever grateful. My journey is not over yet. I will continue rehabilitation in Reuth’s day program. I had to choose between taking the easy way down or the hard way up. I chose the hard way, to rise, embrace rehabilitation as a life project and excel in it. And that is what I did.”

Read Idan’s full story on Ynet (Hebrew):
https://www.ynet.co.il/health/article/yokra14572727

In the Photo: Idan and his wife with Staff Sergeant Major Popov and Dr. Diana Goldin, Director of the Rehabilitation Department at Reuth .