5781 – A Year of New Beginnings

Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel summarizes the year of 5781 as a year of milestones and achievements, amidst a global pandemic, a military operation and civilian violence.

• Aproximately 47,000 infants, children and youth from all over the country were treated in the Emergency Medicine Department (ER), the largest of its kind in the country, over the past year 5781
• Aproximately 235,000 visits were registered in the various clinics and institutes.
• 46 organ transplants and 42 bone marrow transplants were conducted in children at Schneider Children’s.

Among those who underwent organ transplants, were a 14-month-old baby who suffered from congenital liver disease, a two-year-old toddler who suffered from a bile duct disorder and an 11-year-old girl who suffered from a life-threatening metabolic genetic disorder.
 

• An altruistic kidney donation gave a new lease of life to a two-year-old who was born with chronic kidney failure. He was being treated in the Nephrology Institute at the hospital and was one step prior to starting dialysis. Following several attempts that began with other donors but failed due to incompatibility, his parents were surprised to hear the happy news that a suitable donor had been found: A mother of five children had decided to donate a kidney to a child she did not know in order to save a life. The case caused much excitement among the medical teams while the donor was congratulated for her courage and humanitarian spirit to save the life of a child.
• During 5781, Schneider specialists treated many children and infants who inhaled and swallowed foreign objects, including a two-and-a-half-year-old who swallowed a jelly ball. This kind of game is extremely dangerous and can cause immense damage when the balls are swallowed by small children as the balls swell inside the body and lead to life-threatnening blockage of the duodenum. The foreign body was successfully extracted through gastroscopy by an ENT specialist.
• Great drama ensued at the hospital when an 18-month-old infant was brought in with a cut from glass in her neck, sustained when she fell from a supermarket trolley onto a broken bottle. The child arrived suffering from a number of injuries to her neck, the most significant was a cut in the vertebral artery located deep in the back of her neck along her spine. She was treated by multidisciplinary a team of anesthetists, and specialists in ENT, orthopedics, neurosurgery, vascular, cardiac and nursing, ultrasound and cardiac catheter technicians in order to reach the bleeding artery. It was decided to place her on a heart-lung machine all while prolonged resuscitation ensued. The infant recovered amazingly well and was discharged from hospital in full health.
• As part of the military operation Guardian of the Walls that took place in May, staff teams of doctors and nurses transferred all critical patients hospitalized at SCMCI to a fortified emergency area in the building. The reinforced location was created for emergencies to absorb critically ill children hospitalized in the intensive care units, who require ongoing monitoring. Some infants in the Neonatology Department were also transferred to an alternate protected area. The transfer operation was a complex logistical undertaking than took place over many hours prior to missile shells that fell on the city of Petach Tikva.
• An extraordinary story unfolded when a 7-year-old with a rare blood type, suffering from a complex cardiac disorder and congenital anemia, had to undergo open heart surgery. In search of a compatabile donor and in cooperation with Red Magen David and Beilinson Hospital, a search ensued to find a matching donor in Israel and abroad. A response arrived from the Japanese Red Cross, which identified and sent two blood units to Israel, which were successfully infused during surgery, saving the girl’s life.
• Additionally, the nursing staff at Schneider Children’s mobilized to participate in the national coronavirus vaccination campaign, even though the hospital is only for children. As a result, some 14,287 individuals of all ages from all over Israel received their vaccinations at SCMCI.