(photo: CNN)
By Oren Liebermann - May 11, 2015
Originally appeared here on CNN.com
The scars of surgery run all the way down Jamal's left leg.
He struggles to walk, requiring crutches that he is still learning to use. A bulky metal brace still holds his lower left leg together. It clanks on the ground as he makes his way down the hallways of the hospital.
Jamal has been through hell. He is 7 years old. And he has come out smiling.
His family is from war-torn Syria. A rocket destroyed his leg, scarring his skin. His mother says she thought he would die.
"He needed nine packs of blood that they didn't have," she says of the medical facility in Syria. "He went into a coma for 20 days as a result."
Eighteen surgeries later, Jamal is recovering after treatment at Ziv Medical Center in northern Israel, one of a group of hospitals that has treated nearly 2,000 injured Syrians over the last two years. Read More