The Man Who Fought Smoking: "Cigarettes Cut Lives Short, My Story Proves It"

If you happen to be on the streets of Bnei Brak, you might meet him, Ephraim Klimian. Usually, he sits near the synagogue on a bench, because he lacks the strength for other activities. But he takes the opportunity, when encountering people with cigarettes in their hands, to call out from the depths of his soul: "Jews, don't smoke yourselves to death. The Torah says 'you shall be very careful to protect your lives'. Take heed, you are harming your own lives, dear Jews."

His words aren't mere cliches but carry the pain and suffering he personally endured. "I have been suffering greatly for nine years," he says with sorrow, "I've incurred irreversible damage to my lungs, I can't function, and it's all due to smoking. Although I haven't smoked in thirty-eight years, my lungs are completely damaged, and doctors state unequivocally that it's due to cigarettes. Nowadays it's very hard for me to function, walk, or roam the streets. I'm sadly stuck at home most of the day."

Sequence of Miracles

His deterioration began, as noted, nine years ago: "It was on Shabbat, I went to the synagogue to pray Mincha, and on my way home I fell on the road. I woke up three months later in Tel Hashomer, not knowing what happened to me and unable to understand what I saw around me. Everything was erased from my memory. One of my sons later told me that on that Shabbat I had a cardiac arrest and fell on the road. It turned out I had a great miracle because a neighbor who lives near the synagogue saw me from his window and wondered why I was leaning on his car. When he realized I had fallen, he ran down and immediately called an ambulance. It was an incredible miracle because an intensive care unit had been summoned to a parallel street and the call was canceled, so they turned around and got to me in less than a minute. That was the second miracle that saved my life."

In the ambulance, the resuscitation efforts began and continued until reaching the hospital. "My children told me that from the very first moment they were told I only had a minute to live, no more. At Wolfson Hospital, I had a second cardiac arrest, and my condition was very severe."

Ephraim stresses that the following things were told to him by his family: "My sons arrived on Motzei Shabbat because they could only travel then, and the doctors told them they were sorry, there was nothing to be done naturally, but there was hope—a cold suit from the USA designed to minimize brain damage. Maybe it would help. And if not, they were raising their hands. So I lay in the cold suit for two days, meanwhile, reading of Tehillim, prayers, pleas, and suddenly after two days, my son who was sitting next to me noticed I was starting to move my fingers. He screamed up to the heavens: 'My father is alive! He's not dead!'"

Ephraim's voice chokes up as he talks about it. "You don't understand what this is about; it was a true miracle, a huge miracle. Because my fingers moved a bit, the doctors gained hope and started treating me until my condition slowly improved, but unfortunately, my heart didn't work. I was transferred to Assuta Tel Aviv, underwent five bypasses, and eventually, the doctor came out of the operating room and told my son: 'Listen, your father had a huge miracle, his heart collapsed several times, and he came back to life, but it doesn't help, he won't be able to live because his lungs are not functioning."

Only then, says Ephraim, did he realize the severity of the situation. "For years, I was a heavy smoker, smoking two packs a day, I simply couldn't stop, I was hooked on cigarettes like an IV. Thirty-eight years ago, I managed to break free from cigarettes. It was because my eldest son, then seven, met me one day when I came home and said with complete innocence: 'Dad, what happened to you, why do you smell so bad?' He really stayed away from me, and I remember it hurt me. At that moment, I said to myself: 'I'm changing my life, my children will never see me smoking.'"

The fact that Ephraim succeeded in quitting smoking is amazing. "What haven't I done in the past to wean myself off smoking?" he says, "I bought fake cigarettes, gums, candies... nothing helped because it's really so hard. But when I realized how smoking could harm my kids, and eventually they might learn from me to smoke, I stopped. But the damage apparently was already done. Understand, I researched the issue deeply, and I can clearly say—studies prove that even one cigarette shortens a person's life, especially in my situation where I smoked dozens of cigarettes a day. So, it's true I stopped smoking, but afterward, in all the years that passed, I continued to feel a scratch in my chest. When I went to the doctors, they sent me for an X-ray, and there they showed me a picture of my lungs that turned black, they simply burned. That's what led to the cardiac arrest I experienced and subsequently the collapse of the lungs."

"You Are Shortening Your Lives"

Ephraim, as mentioned, uses every opportunity to stop smokers and simply draw their attention. "If I could, I would go out with signs and posters against smoking because it really isn't a joke; a cigarette invites the angel of death to people. Smoking causes so much trouble and chaos in life, so for what?"

But wait, how were your lives saved in the end? The doctors said your lungs collapsed!

"That was my third miracle. The doctors put me under sedation so I wouldn't exert myself and not strain the lungs, and meanwhile, they helped me breathe using an external system that replaced the lung function. A month later, they started easing off the anesthesia and let me try breathing on my own. It, with Hashem's help, succeeded. It's not clear how. The lungs are still very damaged and require care and monitoring, but I, with Hashem's help, am alive and breathing."

"I remember waking up at Tel Hashomer, in the cardio-pulmonary department. Before I was discharged from the hospital, the department head came to me, he sat on my bed and said to me, 'Listen, you don't know what happened to you, but we pulled you out of the mouth of the angel of death, you didn't have a chance.'"

Nine years have passed since. Ephraim notes that he lives at home, and with Hashem's blessing, sees joy from his children and grandchildren, but his medical condition is dire. "I can't function, hardly leave the house... but I am grateful for every moment I'm alive."

He also notes: "I feel I remained in the world to deliver the message: Ladies and Gentlemen, stop smoking; it ruins life in an irreparable way. It harms from head to toe, people lose their entire lives because of it; the heart doesn't function, the lungs don't function, health ends. Cigarettes only cause destruction and ruin, so ladies and gentlemen, take care of your lives. They are precious."

And how do you feel when you see people smoking?

"It tears my heart, truly. There's not a day that I don't talk with people who choose to smoke, but unfortunately, they don't believe me. They say, 'Hashem will help,' but Hashem doesn't help people who burn their lives. So stop smoking and internalize: Cigarettes are not child's play."