NYU Langone Health is partnering with an Israeli hospital to provide Israel Defense Forces soldiers with pioneering limb reconstructive surgeries and train local doctors to do the same, amid the country’s ongoing war in Gaza.
The initiative is facilitated by Israeli wound rehabilitation center Belev Echad, and partners NYU Langone’s Center for Amputation Reconstruction and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. NYU Langone surgeons will perform osseointegration procedures — which treat “complex limb injuries” by attaching prosthetics directly to a patient’s bone — and teach Israeli doctors how to replicate the surgery.
In a statement to WSN, NYU Langone spokesperson Marlene Naanes said the CAR unit has previously provided advanced orthopedic care and emotional counseling to doctors, civilians and soldiers from Ukraine, Saudi Arabia and other countries in wartime. She also said the global initiatives aim to spread awareness about medical advancements that could help treat injuries.
“The Center for Amputation Reconstruction’s mission is to provide individuals the opportunity to be functioning members of society and to get back to a normal life, so they don’t have to be focused on limb loss, loss of function or debilitating pain,” Naanes said.
Currently, NYU Langone is the first hospital in the United States to publicize its programs offering medical assistance to Israel in the wake of its war in Gaza. In January, a Congress member introduced legislation to expand health care collaborations between the two countries, such as establishing a “U.S.-Israel Health Care Collaboration Center” for service and training initiatives.
CAR founder Omri Ayalon, who has been working with IDF soldiers since at least last March, told Fox News in an interview that he was grateful to be able to support an area that has limited orthopedic resources. Osseointegration is not widespread in Israel, and NYU Langone — which began practicing the surgery in 2022 — is one of few hospitals in New York City to offer the procedure.
“We have the luxury here of not being in wartime and able to focus on these more reconstructive procedures that help these soldiers get back to a more normal way of life,” Ayalon told Fox News.
In November 2023, a former administrator at NYU Langone filed a lawsuit against the hospital and the university claiming he was religiously discriminated against after he criticized those “who supported the violence toward and the death of Israelis” on X. A physician was also terminated from his residency program for posting in support of Palestinian resistance on his private Instagram account — and in May, a labor nurse was fired after she mentioned the suffering of women “during the current genocide in Gaza” while delivering an acceptance speech.
Following all three incidents, NYU Langone spokesperson Steve Ritea said the hospital would uphold its decisions to establish an institution that is “committed to providing a safe and inclusive environment, free of discrimination, for all of our employees and patients.”
Contact Amanda Chen at [email protected].
