Hospital ordered to continue caring for girl in coma

An Israeli  court ordered a rehabilitation center to allow 4-year-old Adele Biton, who remains in a coma a year after a Palestinian rock attack, to remain hospitalized.

The April 10 ruling by the Kfar Saba court ordered the Loewenstein Hospital Rehabilitation Center in Ra’anana to allow Adele to remain hospitalized for at least another month while her family equips their home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Yakir to accommodate her medical needs.

A lawyer’s letter on behalf of the center delivered last week gave the family 24 hours to leave with their daughter.

Pleas from the girl’s mother, Adva Biton, to Israel’s health and economy ministers, Yael German and Naftali Bennett, requesting more time from the center were not successful.

The hospital told the Times of Israel that it had given the family a month’s notice and that the girl’s treatment had concluded with no signs of improvement.

Adele has remained unconscious since the attack on March 14, 2013, when a car driven by Biton carrying her three young daughters near the West Bank settlement of Ariel swerved and hit a truck after being hit by rocks thrown by two Palestinian teens. — jta