The yishuv of Nariya in Binyamin was engulfed in mourning on Motzei Shabbos upon hearing the news of the tragic death of Renana Kantrovitch, a’h, at the age of 45. Renana, a mother of two and a beloved teacher, contracted COVID two weeks ago. On Friday night her condition worsened and she lost consciousness. MDA paramedics who were called to the scene carried out resuscitation techniques while evacuating her to the hospital but unfortunately her death was declared after arriving at the hospital. Renana was healthy with no underlying illnesses but was not vaccinated. She was a much-beloved teacher at the Bnei Akiva high school for girls in Nariya, where she also lived, and her many students, past and present, were shocked and devastated at the news of her sudden death.

As Prime Minister Naftali Bennett lauded Israel’s response to the coronavirus at the UN General Assembly in New York, overloaded hospitals in Israel were running out of ECMO machines. On Wednesday, Channel 13 News reported that Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest hospital, used its last ECMO machine for a 22-year-old coronavirus patient. The patient has no history of preexisting illnesses but was not vaccinated. In an unprecedented move, the report said that Rambam Hospital in Haifa will “lend” an ECMO machine to Ichilov to prevent patients from dying due to a lack of the life-saving machine. Senior officials in the health system are saying that most hospitals in Israel have almost no ECMO machines left, both in central Israel and the rest of the country.

Israel’s Health Ministry announced last week that it will finally offer the lifesaving Regeneron antibody treatment for COVID to Kupot Cholim to treat mildly and moderately ill COVID patients. Earlier this month, a Ynet report revealed that although the Health Ministry had purchased thousands of doses of the Regeneron drug, it failed to release it for mass use by Kupot Cholim to treat COVID patients at home despite its proven success rate in the US. A day after the announcement last week, the Kupot Cholim began providing the drug to coronavirus patients at high risk of becoming seriously ill, especially the unvaccinated as well as those suffering from obesity and heart and lung ailments.

Israel is pressing ahead with its vigorous campaign of offering coronavirus boosters to almost anyone over 12 and says its approach was further vindicated by a U.S. decision to give the shots to older patients or those at higher risk. Israeli officials credit the booster shot, which has already been delivered to about a third of the population, with helping suppress the country’s latest wave of COVID-19 infections. They say the differing approaches are based on the same realization that the booster is the right way to go, and expect the U.S. and other countries to expand their campaigns in the coming months. “The decision reinforced our results that the third dose is safe,” said Dr.

Two Chareidi pregnant women, both in their 20s, are hospitalized in critical condition, sedated and ventilated, in a Jerusalem hospital after contracting COVID. The women, both from the same neighborhood in Jerusalem, were unvaccinated. In recent weeks, a COVID outbreak has been noted in a number of neighborhoods in central Jerusalem. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
The post Jerusalem: 2 Unvaxxed Chareidi Pregnant Women Critically Ill With COVID, Sedated & Ventilated appeared first on The Yeshiva World.

Is the delta variant of the coronavirus worse for kids? Experts say there’s no strong evidence that it makes children and teens sicker than earlier versions of the virus, although delta has led to a surge in infections among kids because it’s more contagious. Delta’s ability to spread more easily makes it more of a risk to children and underscores the need for masks in schools and vaccinations for those who are old enough, said Dr. Juan Dumois, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Weekly infection rates among U.S. children earlier this month topped 250,000, surpassing the wintertime peak, according to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association.

Israeli hospital directors have been expressing their frustration to Israeli media outlets this week that Israelis “who choose to play Russian roulette with their lives by not vaccinating are stealing the resources of those who vaccinated.” An example of the issues arising in the wake of those who choose not to vaccinate is the death of a 53-year-old Israeli man last week, who died due to a lack of ECMO machines. The man, who was not a COVID patient, suffered a heart attack and required an ECMO machine to save his life but no machines were available. Another incident that occurred last week highlighted this moral dilemma as precious medical resources were used to carry out a complex transfer of a young unvaccinated ECMO patient from northern Israel to Jerusalem.

A 53-year-old Israeli man who suffered a heart attack died last week after hospital staff members were unable to locate an ECMO machine for him since they are almost all in use by unvaccinated coronavirus patients, Channel 12 News reported. The man, who was not a coronavirus patient, was hospitalized in a hospital in northern Israel after he suffered a heart attack. His condition deteriorated and he needed to be attached to an ECMO machine to save his life. The medical staff at the hospital searched for hours to locate a machine but to no avail. Several hours later, the man’s condition deteriorated and he stopped breathing. Doctors tried to resuscitate him but were ultimately forced to declare his death.

COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did — approximately 675,000. The U.S. population a century ago was just one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the failure to take maximum advantage of the vaccines available this time. “Big pockets of American society — and, worse, their leaders — have thrown this away,” medical historian Dr. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan said of the opportunity to vaccinate everyone eligible by now. Like the Spanish flu, the coronavirus may never entirely disappear from our midst.

Chaya Leah Bergman, a’h, 31, of Modiin Illit passed away of the coronavirus on Tuesday evening, Motzei Yom Tov, in Assaf HaRofeh Medical Center in Rishon L’Tzion. Mrs. Bergman, who was unvaccinated, was evacuated to the hospital on Tuesday evening after her condition took a turn for the worse and she was struggling to breathe. She stopped breathing during the evacuation and the paramedics carried out resuscitation techniques which were continued at the hospital but unfortunately, the doctors were ultimately forced to declare her death. “We’re using this opportunity to call again to the public to vaccinate and to prevent this type of tragedy,” a statement from the hospital said. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)