The Hand (II)

I should come back to the blog by getting the hand out of the way.

My hand is doing well. So well in fact, it is hard to lay the memory of what it looked like on what it looks like now. More importantly, my hand is fully functional.

The credit for this small miracle goes to Dr. Jerry Yoram Haviv, a surgeon who practices in Santa Monica, California. When I arrived at the hospital following the accident, the surgeon in charge said, “If this had happened to me, I would want Dr. Haviv to be my surgeon.”

Dr. Haviv’s seriousness and palpable intelligence impressed me right away. I was also pleased to see he carried his magnifying glasses in a small, old-world wooden box. He introduced himself, removed the bandages wrapped around my hand, studied the bloody fingers and told me what he was planning to do. What Dr. Haviv said was more promising than I expected and what he did was even better. In the last few months, I have looked forward to his evaluations of my progress and to our talks about art, Israel and books.