The administrative staff of a West Sydney hospital changed the name of a Jewish victim of the Bondi terror attack and removed her religion from the file without asking her permission, the patient, Rosalia Shikhberg, revealed in an interview with Sky News Australia on Wednesday.
The staff gave Shikhberg the alias “Karen Jones” and redacted her religion from her patient file, so even her medical prescriptions listed the alias rather than her real name. She said the staff told her this was “to keep media away” but that she thought “they were afraid of staff, not media. They can’t trust their own staff.”
“I was so scared and so upset. My husband and my family never left my side.”
Shikhberg recalled the viral story from Spring 2025, where two Australian nurses at Bankstown Hospital in New South Wales claimed to have killed Israeli patients and said they would kill Jews if they came to the hospital. She said that the Bankstown incident made her fear for her own safety. “I knew I had to be discharged very quickly. I couldn’t drink, I couldn’t eat, I cried all the time.”
Alex Ryvchin, co-CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, called it a “deeply alarming incident.”
“What exactly was hospital staff trying to protect a Jewish woman who had just survived a massacre from? Why was she in danger and from whom?” he queried. Responding to the report during a press conference on Wednesday, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said it was done with “great intent” from the staff and motivated by the desire to protect Shikhberg.
Australian Jewish woman says hospital staff changed her name after Bondi attack
However, he acknowledged this was not communicated to her effectively and that he would be meeting with the hospital to discuss room to improve.
“Clearly, it was a mistake. The patient should have been asked about the designation, and we will learn from it in the future,” said NSW Premier Chris Minns in the same conference. Minns added that “the designation of a different name is reasonably common, but not universal.”
However, Arsen Ostrovsky, who was also badly wounded in the same attack, said he felt the name change was protocol and that he himself was unbothered by being given an alias.
“Depending on the seriousness of the patient’s condition – and I was hit with a bullet to the head – there is not always time to consult beforehand. And I only found out my details were altered when I noted the bracelet on my arm after admission.”
“The doctors explained this was protocol in such a situation, done purely as a matter of security to protect my privacy, given the nature and gravity of the attack and intense interest.” After discharge, he requested that the paperwork be amended to reflect proper details.
“I took absolutely no offense with the process and fully accepted it was in my best interest,” he said, adding that he was treated with the “utmost care, compassion, and professionalism.”
“While the hospitals may have perhaps communicated their reasoning better to Rosalia, I don’t believe there was any malice on their behalf.”
The NSW Health website states that providing aliases is not uncommon in cases where the patient is at risk of violence, unwanted media attention, or is in witness protection, but that the patient must be advised of this prior to their name being changed in the system and prior to the commencement of treatment.