Gal Gadot was honored with the Hollywood Icon Award by the Women’s Guild Cedars-Sinai at the Snow Ball gala on Thursday night in Beverly Hills.
The “Wonder Woman” star thanked the hospital’s doctors, nurses and caregivers who saved her and her baby daughter Ori’s lives.
“Last year, my life took an unexpected turn,” Gadot said. “I was eight months pregnant, juggling family, work and everything in-between when I started to feel the kind of headache that makes the world stop for three weeks.”
Her mother convinced her to go for an MRI on Feb. 5, 2024. “Before we even got back home, my phone rang, and my doctor said, ‘You need to come to the hospital right now. It’s serious. You have a massive brain clot,’” Gadot recalled about being diagnosed with cerebral venous thrombosis or CVT. “From that moment, I just could not understand anything. English was out the window. My husband was speaking to different doctors, and all I could think was, am I going to die? Is this how it feels before you die? Are they going to be able to save me?…Is the baby going to be okay?’”
Within three hours, doctors delivered Ori. “The next morning, while my husband held our tiny newborn, my incredible doctors performed the procedure that saved my life, and when I woke up, I realized that I had been given two gifts, one in my arms, Ori and one in my heart, a second chance,” Gadot said. “Cedars-Sinai, you gave me that chance.”
Gadot’s physician, Dr. Shlee Song, presented her with the award.
“I’ve come to learn that Cedars-Sinai was founded in 1918 by members of the Jewish community in Los Angeles, at a time when Jewish patients and Jewish doctors faced discrimination and were often denied equal medical care,” Gadot said. “This hospital was born from resilience, from unity, and from the belief that every human deserves dignity, safety and healing. So to stand here tonight more than a century later, being recognized as an Israeli, as a Jewish woman, especially in a world that sometimes feels very divided and filled with hate, it means the world to me.
“It reminds me that light endures, compassion endures, healing endures and today, this hospital, which began as a response to exclusion, has become one of the leading medical centers in the world, a place where everyone is welcome, everyone is cared for, everyone is treated with humanity.”
Gadot concluded her speech with a PSA of sorts: “Through this journey, I learned something that every woman, everyone actually, should remember — if your body whispers that something is wrong, listen. If your heart says, ‘This doesn’t feel right,’ trust it. Advocating for yourself isn’t weakness. It’s an act of love.”
Gadot first revealed and detailed the life-threatening ordeal in an Instagram post in December.
