Nearly a week after Neria Leiter was critically wounded in a terrorist ramming attack on Route 443, his mother, Chani Leiter, has described the agonizing uncertainty surrounding her son’s condition as doctors gradually reduce his sedation and his family waits to see how he will awaken.

Neria, 38, a reserve soldier and the son of Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter, remains hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Yerushalayim after suffering a severe head injury in the Sept. 23 attack. He underwent hours of complex brain surgery following the attack and has remained in intensive care. The latest account from his mother indicates that doctors are now less focused on whether he will survive the immediate crisis and more on the extent of his eventual recovery.

“Neria is still on a ventilator. His brain stem is functioning normally. We need to keep a close watch on him, but the doctors are less concerned about his immediate survival and more uncertain about how he will wake up,” she told Israel Hayom. “They have started reducing the sedation, and we are waiting to see how he responds. Right now, there is a great deal of uncertainty. In the best-case scenario, we will begin the long journey of rehabilitation.”

Neria was serving on reserve duty alongside police personnel at the Bell checkpoint near Route 443 when a Palestinian terrorist drove a vehicle toward the security forces and struck him. Israeli security personnel shot and killed the attacker at the scene. Neria was evacuated unconscious to Shaare Zedek, where doctors performed emergency surgery on his brain.

The ordeal has been especially wrenching for the Leiter family, which already suffered the loss of Neria’s older brother, Maj. Moshe Yedidya Leiter, Hy”d, who was killed while fighting in Beit Hanoun in Gaza in November 2023. Moshe, a father of six, had been training to become a doctor and was serving as a reserve officer when he was killed.

Asked how many children she has, Hani answered with words that captured the almost unimaginable position in which the family now finds itself.

“I have eight children. One is in Heaven, one is somewhere in between, and six more.”

Despite everything the family has endured, she said she continues trying to hold onto hope, although there are inevitably moments when doing so becomes far more difficult.

“It really depends on my mood. When I have the strength, I am optimistic. It is genuine optimism. We hear so many stories of miracles, of people who were critically wounded and are functioning today, and that really reassures us.”

The family has been surrounded by tefillos since the attack. Neria’s father immediately cut short his stay in New York, where he had been preparing for Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s visit to the United Nations, and flew back to Eretz Yisroel to be at his son’s bedside. He publicly asked Jews around the world to daven for Neria, saying shortly after the attack that his son “needs a miracle.”

Ambassador Leiter said at the time that Neria had continued serving hundreds of days of reserve duty on multiple fronts even after the family lost Moshe. He expressed his belief in the power of the Jewish people’s tefillos and said that when Klal Yisroel comes together, miracles can happen.

Amid those tefillos, Hani related an extraordinary dream experienced by a cousin of the family. In the dream, the cousin saw both Moshe and Neria.

“She dreamed about Moshe, completely surrounded by light. Then Neria comes toward him, and Moshe pushes him away. He tells him, ‘Go back now. What are you doing here?!’ It is terrible to think about, but it isn’t completely far-fetched, because he was completely unconscious when he arrived at the hospital.”

The dream carries particular emotional weight because of the unusually close relationship between the two brothers. Yechiel Leiter has said that Neria and Moshe grew up sharing the same bedroom and were best friends. After Moshe was killed, Neria assumed an especially important role in holding the grieving family together.

Hani said the family’s experience following Moshe’s death also made the decision of her children to continue serving in combat extraordinarily difficult for her.

“I told them I wasn’t sure I could handle it. So some of them enlisted in logistical roles, but eventually moved into combat. In the end, Neria also fought in Lebanon. While he was there, I spoke with Liat, and she told me she was really afraid. Then he came home and began taking on reserve shifts beyond what was required, in a unit tasked with accompanying police during operations in Judea and Samaria.”

Neria had in fact continued reporting for reserve duty despite the tragedy his family had already endured, eventually serving hundreds of days on several fronts. On the day he was wounded, he was participating in a joint operation with police personnel at the checkpoint when the terrorist struck.

His mother said that after Moshe’s petirah, Neria became one of the central figures holding the extended family together. He worked to keep his siblings connected, arranged family gatherings and tried to fill some of the enormous void left by his brother.

The days since the attack have brought another extraordinary mixture of pain and simcha to the Leiter family. While Neria lay in intensive care, his sister Sarah, who had come to the hospital to be near him while heavily pregnant, went into labor approximately two weeks before her due date. She gave birth at the same medical center, reportedly only about 40 meters from the intensive-care unit where her brother was fighting for his life.

Yechiel Leiter contrasted the family’s current ordeal with the devastating night in 2023 when they learned that Moshe had been killed. With Moshe, he said, there had been no opportunity for doctors to intervene. With Neria, the family has been able to gather around his bedside, say Tehillim and turn to Klal Yisroel for tefillos.

Neria’s wife and children have also been navigating the painful uncertainty. His mother previously said that his wife was stunned that such a catastrophe could strike after already fearing for him during his service in Lebanon. The couple’s oldest son, 11, was told about his father’s condition on the night following the attack.

For now, the family remains beside Neria as his doctors slowly reduce the sedation and watch for signs that will provide a clearer picture of what lies ahead. The immediate danger that dominated the first hours after the attack has eased somewhat, according to his mother, but enormous uncertainty remains regarding his neurological recovery and the rehabilitation he may require.

The family is asking Klal Yisroel to continue storming the Shaarei Shomayim on his behalf.

Please continue to daven for the complete refuah sheleimah of Neria Dov Chaim ben Chana.

{Matzav.com}