JERUSALEM (VINnews) — 15 years ago, Gilad Lahiani was a young soldier in the Nahal brigade. Lahiani, from the village of Odem in the Golan heights, loved rowing kayaks from the age of 11 and dreamed of competing in tournaments. However all this came to an abrupt end on the 12th of July 2006, when the Second Lebanon War broke out.
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Lahiani fought in a number of sectors, but was injured during the last phase of the war before the cease fire. He recalls to Yediot Aharonot reporter Yifat Glick that “it was Shabbat afternoon. We were in a building in the Wadi Saluki, we targeted terrorists and enabled the IDF to push forward. We were being attacked with Cornet missiles and one hit us. There were a number of injured and two were critically injured, including me.”
The other soldier died en route to hospital but Lahiani was more resilient. “I was hit by shrapnel in the head and upper body. One fragment entered my left eye and it was totally ruined. I don’t remember anything from being hit, because I was in critical condition.
Lahiani was operated on to remove the fragments and to stabilize him but after a few days his heart stopped. “I underwent a long resuscitation which saved my life,” he says. “I woke up after 11 days.”
When he regained consciousness his parents gave an interview to Glick, who always wondered what had happened to him afterwards. “I was embarrassed to ask”, she says.
It was Gilad’s mother who contacted Glick and told her that now Gilad is married and the father of three children and is a professional kayak rower who has opened a rafting firm. Glick was very moved to hear the details and decided to interview Lahiani himself for the first time.
“My progress was much faster than the doctors expected” Lahiani says. “I think its because my body was that of a sportsman and I knew how to recover fast. The loss of an eye never perturbed me, I don’t even feel it. I was perturbed by my weakness from the injury, since before the injury I had very strong abilities and suddenly felt like a baby.”
Lahiani describes this as his “biggest challenge.” The head of the rehabilitation center said that he was not sure that Lahiani would ever row again but Lahiani dismissed him: “I said to myself that if I already survived there’s no way they’re going to take away the kayaks from me. That is my greatest love.”
Lahiani built himself a special program with the help of the rehabilitation sector of the Defense Ministry and slowly but surely managed to get back into the water and begin to row again. He managed to regain his fitness by raising the level of difficulty every day and finally reached a point where he claims he is at a higher level than before his injury” “I began to fly to rivers abroad to row there. I saw that I was managing on those rivers and this restored my confidence. It gave me the drive to do what I had intended to do after army service – a trip to America and kayaking on its rivers, and indeed this is what I did.”
After returning home Gilad met Miri, a special ed teacher who became his wife. They now have three children: 7-year-old Achinoam, 5-year-old Uriah and 2-year-old Yarden. A fourth child is due in the winter.
Three years ago Lahiani fulfilled another dream and established together with his brother Omer “White Waters” ,a school for river navigation. “The goal of the school is to make this special sport approachable for anyone”, Lahiani says. Besides the educational element, Lahiani sees the business as a tourist attraction.”
Lahiani in his kayak
“This week there was a night I couldn’t sleep. I didn’t understand why and then I heard a program on the radio about 15 years since the Lebanon war and realized that my body remembers. There are difficult days but what pushes me forward is my family and my work in the river. When I see all that I have gone through in dealing with this serious injury, I know that I won.”