For policeman Barack Dadden, being hit by a rock in the head during a Jerusalem funeral may have been the best thing that happened to him.
Dedon, a superintendent, was commanding police forces for Haredi’s funeral in the capital some six months ago, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Clashes erupted between the people attending the event and police officers attempting to maintain the ban on gatherings, and Daiden was hit in the head with a rock, sending him to the hospital.
“The only stone that was thrown was my head,” he told Channel 13 this week. “I lost consciousness.”
Hospital staff investigating the injury came to the conclusion that the injury was mild, but a CT scan revealed a far more worrying discovery: a large tumor in Dadden’s head.
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“When I came out of the CT, the X-ray technician asked me, ‘Have you ever had head surgery?’ I said no, I’m a healthy person,” said Dadon.
“They said, ‘Come on, sit down. The good news is there’s no blood coming from the rock in your head.’ I said: ‘And…?'”
The technician replied: “We have found something.”
Dadden, whose wife was pregnant with their second child at the time, said he was shocked and horrified by the news.
“My world fell apart,” he said. “I conceived my wife as a widow with two children, I fell apart.”
The hospital planned immediate surgery to remove the tumor from Dadden’s brain, and he began months of arduous treatment to cure his cancer.
Daden is now healthy and back to work – except when he is with his family and kids.
“This uniform is my life,” he said. “I know nothing but strength. That’s my health.”
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