Sheba Hospital is the ground floor of the Corona in Israel - and precisely because of that you can feel the tension in the air. • The decision to let relatives say goodbye to their loved ones is exciting.

Deep into the horror of the epidemic, one can already declare that the government hospital that will come to Tel Hashomer is the corona ground in Israel. The blue signs on the special corona complexes can not be missed throughout the hospital: Shiba was the first hospital in Israel to receive isolated and corona patients, has in aggregate the most hospital beds in Corona, including a special psychiatric complex, and on Sunday even a special respiratory rehabilitation department for corona patients, One of the first in the world will be managed by Dr. Arie Wallner, who is regarded as an outstanding director and world-renowned expert in this field.

Preparation at the Sheba hospital following the Corona // Photo: Paz Barr

And precisely because of this, you can feel the tension in the air, and I'm talking about this very personal information: I have been visiting my dear mother every day for the last few days in my respiratory rehabilitation department at Tel Hashomer. My mother found her time to contract severe pneumonia, which led her to be anesthetized for two weeks and enrolled in the general intensive care unit at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, where the team led by Dr. Nissim Yifrach, an exceptionally excellent and humane physician, was able to rescue her and stabilize her condition. She was transferred to respiratory rehabilitation in Tel Hashomer, and in much of the ICU I was unable to control because I was in solitary confinement after it was discovered that I had been interviewed alongside a Corona patient in Channel 20 studio in Jerusalem.

Fortunately, my mother has already undergone two tests for Corona and has been found to be negative, but the concern is with me and the department, and it can be felt at any moment as more and more medical and nursing staff in hospitals in Israel are discovered blue in Corona, and when hundreds more patients are discovered every day in Israel. Although the staff in the department is very careful about protecting against infection and they wear masks all the time, yet, despite all this, the heavy and burdensome concern exists all the time, every moment. In this situation, every visitor to the ward suddenly appears to be a potential suspect for Corona, and every patient, or doctor or brother, who coughs, appears to be the enemy of the people.

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This concern is further compounded when Dr. Wallner's department staff is now split into two: some will continue to treat only the existing department and some will only deal with the Corona Rehabilitation Department. Dr. Wallner himself cannot be split in two, so he will continue to manage the two parts. Ward, but will not physically come to see patients in the regular non-corona ward.

Heartbreaking drama

Thus, the respiratory rehabilitation department at Tel Hashomer illustrates, perhaps more than any other department, the harsh drama of Israeli hospitals, who are very much trying to continue to provide quality and dedicated care to patients who are not infected in Corona, who are very worried about infecting patients and medical staff in Corona, and at the same time living in front of a scary scenario that would need to stop treating most The patients because of a surge of hundreds or so thousands of coronary patients.

About a week ago, I warned on these heart-wrenching descriptions of deceased Corona's families, unable to say goodbye or see their loved ones during their last hours, as is always the case in these situations when it is not Corona's. This, moreover, is that because of the new restrictions these families also cannot hold a funeral as is customary.

I have also written that despite this harsh reality and precisely because of it, the Ministry of Health has so far not issued any special guidelines to the hospitals regarding ways in which it is possible, nevertheless, to maintain contact and meetings with the patients, and especially with the severely ill, some in their final hours. Health officials have acknowledged that this is a really serious problem and that there are technical ways to allow family members to visit these patients - while keeping them from contracting and spreading the disease. But the Ministry of Health has not thought of it himself until now.

As a result, Ichilov's manager, Prof. Ronnie Gamzu, picked up the glove and initiated a new procedure that finally allows the relatives to come in full protection provided by the hospital to say goodbye to their loved ones. Well done to Prof. Gamzo and Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba who started doing this. One can only hope that it will become an urgent procedure for all hospitals in Israel in the current reality.