How a Six-Year-Old’s Prayers Helped Him Beat the Odds

A mother’s heart always knows when something isn’t right with her child. That’s what happened to 36-year-old Yifat Himi, a mother of two from Kiryat Shmona, who began to worry when her little son Ram Yosef, just two and a half years old, started limping. The doctors reassured her again and again that everything was fine, but Yifat’s motherly instincts told her otherwise.

“I saw with my own eyes that something wasn’t right,” she recalls with a trembling voice. “For three months, we went back and forth to Ziv Hospital in Safed. We kept coming home without any answers. ‘Your son is fine,’ they kept saying, and added, ‘If you insist on a CT scan, you’ll be putting his life at risk.’”

But Yifat didn’t give up. She pushed until the doctors agreed to monitor his condition and told her to return in two weeks if it got worse. “I didn’t wait two weeks. After just one week of Ram Yosef crying from pain, I told my husband to take him back to the hospital and not to leave until they gave us a clear answer.”

Her determination paid off. The doctors finally ran full tests, and the results came quickly. Yifat remembers the moment vividly. “My husband called me while I was working, also taking care of our newborn baby Noa. Then, without any preparation, I heard the words that turned my world upside down: ‘Ram has leukemia.’ I couldn’t believe it. How could this sweet, tiny child be about to suffer so much?”

Ram Yosef was transferred to the oncology department at Schneider Hospital in Petach Tikva. After the initial shock, Yifat and her husband Prosper decided to create as much stability as possible in their shaken lives. “We decided that Prosper would stay with Ram at the hospital while I stayed with the baby, so she wouldn’t have to be passed around. I kept in touch with Ram through video calls and did everything I could to cheer him up.”

At the same time, they spread Ram Yosef’s name for prayers on every platform they could. And little Ram, their tzaddik (righteous one), did his part too. “When he was just three years old, he asked us to buy him a kippah and a siddur (Jewish prayer book). He even started saying some kind of prayer after washing his hands. We were shocked. We’re a secular family. We didn’t know where he got it from. It felt like someone else inside him was guiding him. But we went with it. We gave him whatever he asked for.”

The chemotherapy took a harsh toll on Ram Yosef. His hair fell out. He lost a lot of weight. He suffered from vomiting, diarrhea, and many painful symptoms. But through it all, Yifat wanted him to experience as normal a childhood as possible. “It was important to me that he go to a regular kindergarten, to be with other kids his age. The staff there loved him and gave him so much care, and Ram thrived. He was also given certain medications that helped, and slowly, we saw the disease retreat. It wasn’t overnight, but after a year, we could finally breathe a little.”

But the struggle wasn’t over yet.

Just as they thought the worst was behind them, Ram Yosef was hospitalized again with suspected pneumonia. “We returned to Schneider’s oncology department, where he had been treated. But instead of checking for cancer again, the doctors focused on the pneumonia.”

That delay proved tragic. During what was supposed to be a routine appendix removal, demanded by Yifat after a concerning x-ray they discovered 37 tears in Ram’s small intestine. “My husband was told, ‘Your son is in critical condition. He might not make it.’ For six hours, they operated on him, sewing the tears and creating a hole in his abdomen to remove waste. I was on the verge of collapse.”

Desperate for hope, they sent a messenger to Rabbi Abuhatzeira of Nahariya to ask for a blessing. The rabbi answered, “Don’t worry. On Tuesday, he will open his eyes.” And so he did.

“That miracle gave me the strength to keep going when I had nothing left,” Yifat says.

But soon after, doctors delivered heartbreaking news. The cancer had spread to his head, and Ram was too weak to continue with chemotherapy. “They told me, ‘There’s nothing more we can do. Just be with him while he fades away.’ I couldn’t accept that.”

The fierce mother inside her rose up. “I told them I’d try anything. I didn’t want to hear the words ‘nothing can be done.’ That department saw children die every day. I wasn’t going to let that be my child.”

Soon, there was a glimmer of hope, an experimental drug from the United States. The doctor warned it could fail, but Yifat had nothing left to lose. “We said yes immediately. I even opened a Facebook page for Ram’s recovery and organized a fundraiser.”

What gave her strength? “Ram Yosef’s smile. His faith. When he said, ‘Mom, I love you,’ it gave me endless energy.”

She’s deeply thankful to the many people who helped bring back that smile. Singer Lior Narkis accompanied Ram throughout this journey and dedicated three special songs to him. His hero, children’s performer Yuval Hamebulbal, visited often and made him laugh like no one else. Stars like Rinat Gabay, Guy Friedman, and many kind souls brought joy to his difficult days.

After starting the new medication, his body responded quickly. Within two weeks, he was well enough to go home. But just as Yifat was preparing to celebrate, her husband called again. “A huge tumor was found in Ram’s head,” he said. She couldn’t believe it.

The new treatment required a preventative measure to block the cancer from reaching the brain, but that step hadn’t been taken. A small human error, and the child suffered once more.

But Ram Yosef whose name one rabbi said hints at refuah min hashamayim (healing from Heaven) didn’t give up. With thousands of people praying for him, he beat the brain tumors too and survived surgery.

In just a week and a half, the little warrior will turn six. His community in Kiryat Shmona will gather for a celebration and presentation honoring the miracle of his life.

What advice does Yifat have for parents facing something similar?

“Thank Hashem for what you have. Believe that things will get better. Keep your child happy. I know it’s not easy, but try to live as if healing is already on the way. Create an atmosphere that everything is okay. And most importantly, pray. Today, I know it wasn’t the experimental drug that saved Ram. It wasn’t the chemo. It was the tefillot (prayers) and the mercy of the Creator of the world.”