JERUSALEM (VINnews) — She is by far the oldest department head in Israel still actively involved in medicine, but Prof. Rena Gil has no plans to stop working, despite 61 years service as a physician. “I am a graduate of the Hadassah hospital from 1961, after so many years in hospital I can’t live without it,” she quips in an interview with N12 news.
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Gil heads the Children’s Chronic Respiratory Care Department at the Herzog hospital in Jerusalem and still works a full schedule at the hospital. Gil requires some support as she walks through the corridors of the department but is still employed in a full position and scoffs at the idea of taking a pension. “Pension,” she says, “Whose talking about pensions?”
Born in Krakow, Prof. Gil survived the Holocaust after hiding in an attic for over two years. After the war, she immigrated and studied medicine, specializing in pediatrics. For 30 years, she headed the Neonatal unit at Bikur Cholim hospital in Jerusalem before taking her position at the Herzog unit.
“I wish to congratulate Prof. Gil in the name of the hospital’s administration. She is an inspiring example of the fact that a person is capable of functioning fully and positively at any age,” a member of staff said at Gil’s birthday party. “We won’t let her leave the department. She’ll stay her until 120 plus,” other appreciative staff members said.
Gil was deeply moved by the gesture and thanked the staff for their warm words. Despite the fact that she had to endure 60-hour shifts as an intern, she still supports the interns who are now fighting to shorten even their 26-hour shifts because, as she says, “the longer the shift lasts, the more the level of concentration drops, work becomes slower and you are less focused.”