Danielle Foundation prize to award the ‘angels’ of medicine
Family calls on public to nominate deserving doctors.
By LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZIDANIELLE SONNENFELD, who was killed in a car accident in 2015, after whom the foundation is named(photo credit: Courtesy)
The Danielle Foundation, a charitable organization that awards a medical prize in memory of 20-year-old Danielle Sonnenfeld, is calling on current or previous hospital patients and their families to nominate oncological doctors or nurses who they feel have gone above and beyond in caring for them.The Danielle Prize – Healing with a Heart, now in its second year, will be awarded to doctors and nurses who are “exemplars of human kindness and compassion” in the field of adult oncology in hospitals throughout the country.“Danielle used to say to me: ‘Even more important than the medicine itself is the way that doctors treated their patients and families,’” Elio Moti Sonnenfeld told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.Described by her father as “a good natured and humble person,” Danielle had planned to study medicine at Beersheba University when she was killed in a car accident in March 2015, on her way back from the pediatric oncology department at Schneider’s Children Hospital where she volunteered.“She was considered the ‘angel’ of that department,” he said. “I am on the board of trustees of the hospital, and when patients see me walking by they say, ‘there is the angel’s father.’” The award, Sonnenfeld said, an embodiment of Danielle’s kind heart and compassion, aims to recognize nurses and doctors who have “made their patients’ pain their own, and who have exceeded expectations” in providing care.The Danielle Prize Committee, comprised of eight leading public figures including prominent businessmen, philanthropists, cultural icons, and senior army officials, will select the winners, who will be honored in a ceremony at the end of March in the presence of President Reuven Rivlin and Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.Last year 16 doctors and nurses in the department of pediatric oncology were awarded the inaugural prize in a ceremony at the President’s Residence, with the full support of the Health Ministry.“We are trying to encourage as many people as possible to submit nominations, and this year we want to reach more doctors and reach the smaller medical departments in the periphery,” he said. “There are angels all over.”Nominations are being accepted until February 20, and can be submitted at www.danielle.org.il, via email at prassdanielle@gmail.com, or by fax: (02) 567-3424.