The number of corona patients connected to an artificial heart-lung machine has reached a peak: 31 • Five patients who needed treatment - did not receive it • Dr. Yigal Kasif, director of the Acme Service at Sheba:
The burden on hospitals is high: The
number of corona patients connected to an Acme device (artificial heart-lung device) broke records yesterday and stood at 31.
The operation expanded: the youth began to get vaccinated against Corona // Photo: Paz Bar
The Acme device is the last hope of corona patients in a difficult situation, for whom the soul is not helpful.
The chances of recovery increase as the patient who is connected to Acmo is younger, with little or no background illness, and has previously been respirated for connection to Acmo for a period not exceeding ten days.
Therefore, in a situation where there are only about 40 devices in Israel and a large load on the staffs - patients are given priority.
Recently, the applications of the families of five patients were rejected, including three patients under the age of 65, but suffering from serious background illnesses.
The patients were from several hospitals around the country - Nahariya, Hillel Yaffe, Maayan Hayeshua, Barzilai and Ziv in Safed.
"This is a situation that is not very easy. This is what insufficiency looks like, and at the national level it is bad and cruel," says Dr. Yigal Kasif, senior heart surgeon and director of the Akmo service at Sheba and chairman of the Israeli company Acme "Medical sorting) on the last Acme bed in the country. In such a situation, the patients are chosen who can be given a chance. It is not that we rejected masses of patients, there were 5-4 such patients.
"Hysterical efforts"
Dr. Kasif added that when not every hospital has Acmo devices, there is harm to patients in the periphery: “We make hysterical efforts and bring in patients from everywhere.
But if there is a 65-year-old patient in Sheba and he is close and needs Acmo - we will probably put him on Acmo. "