Against All Odds: Survival, Faith, and Two Extraordinary Miracles

Life sometimes changes in a single moment. A sudden accident, a painful diagnosis, or a closed door can seem like the end of hope. Yet sometimes those same moments become the beginning of something completely different.

These two stories remind us how quickly despair can turn into miracles.

The Israeli Traveler Who Survived a Bus Rollover in Nepal

When Hadassah Kochavi set out on a trip to Nepal, she never imagined it would change her life forever. For ten days she trekked through one of the country’s most breathtaking regions, Langtang, an area known for its frozen lakes and majestic mountains.

At the end of the trek she began the journey back to Kathmandu.

“Unfortunately we couldn’t find a jeep, so we took a bus,” she later recalled. “It’s a long and very bumpy ride. Halfway through the trip the bus lost its brakes.”

The crash was devastating. Several passengers on the bus were killed.

“The bus was packed,” Kochavi remembers. “People were even sitting on the roof. At some point we began to smell the brakes burning. Then the bus rolled over. Luckily it tipped to the side and not into the ravine. I lost consciousness.”

A friend who had been traveling with her was only lightly injured. When rescue teams arrived, he quickly pointed them toward Hadassah.

“He said he saw me lying on the ground unconscious, and my head was bleeding. They brought a small truck and evacuated me.”

At the hospital she was diagnosed with fractures in her spine and neck. She was not allowed to move at all. But suddenly she heard someone speaking Hebrew near her bed.

Without thinking, she lifted her hand.

The woman standing there was Chani Lifshitz, the Chabad emissary in Kathmandu.

Recovery was long and difficult, but today Hadassah lives a full and active life.

“I swim, I run, I hike, I exercise,” she says. “Every morning I bless the miracle that happened to me.”

Her message is simple.

“There are miracles. And if I was given another chance at life, I need to live it big.”

The Mother Who Gave Birth to Two Sets of Triplets

Dorit Sherman’s journey began with a very different kind of crisis.

Today she is the mother of six healthy children, but her story began with a devastating diagnosis.

“Our starting point was below zero,” she recalls. “The doctors told us we had no chance of having children.”

Dorit and her husband Noam married young. She was only twenty years old and, like many young couples, they assumed that starting a family would come naturally.

But months passed with no success. Eventually they went to a specialist to understand what was happening.

One day they sat across from the doctor after a series of tests. He reviewed their file and delivered a blunt conclusion.

“There is no chance. You will not have children.”

Dorit was twenty one. Noam was twenty six.

“It was incredibly hard,” she says. “My dream was to be a mother. There were moments of collapse, despair, tears, and a lot of envy.”

At one stage they even began exploring adoption. Alongside the adoption process they continued fertility treatments, while constantly praying for children of their own.

Each treatment ended in disappointment.

Before the sixth IVF attempt, just one week before Rosh Hashanah, Noam traveled to the grave of Rabbi Elimelech of Lizhensk and prayed with all his heart.

“I didn’t come all this way for one child or two,” he said. “I’m asking for triplets.”

Soon after, the couple switched hospitals for what doctors said would be their final attempt.

This time it worked.

“At the first ultrasound we saw three embryos,” Dorit remembers. “For us it was overwhelming joy.”

Doctors strongly recommended reducing the number of embryos because of the medical risks. The couple faced a painful dilemma and sought guidance from Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu.

He told them the decision depended on the mother’s will.

Dorit was determined.

After six years without children, she refused to give up the chance. She began strict bed rest and endured months of warnings and frightening predictions from doctors.

In the beginning of the ninth month, week thirty six, she gave birth to three healthy babies.

For most families that would have been the end of the story.

But for Dorit and Noam it was only the beginning.

Several years later they decided to try IVF again. On the very first attempt they discovered something astonishing.

They were expecting triplets again.

“When the older triplets were in first grade, the younger triplets were born,” Dorit says with a smile.

Looking back, she believes their six children are the result of years of tears, prayers, and perseverance.

Sometimes the greatest blessings arrive only after the longest struggles.