
“Cognitively she will probably be fine, but at the age of six she will have a hunchback”—I heard this crushing unforgettable phrase from the director of the Child Development Institute Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Shunamit was at the time two and a half years old, after hospitalization due to high fever and seizures, and with a referral for diagnosis and treatment at the Child Development Institute. The director of the institute sat on one side of the office desk, and I, with Shunamit on my lap, on the other side of the desk. And in between there were tests and more testing, and a growing gap between therapist and patient.