The Acme machine, now located in the news center, is a technological device at the forefront of science and medical innovation that makes it possible to rescue critically ill patients whose hearts or lungs have collapsed.
From the beginning the original machine was a machine that replaces the heart and lungs during surgeries.
However this is a very powerful machine that can only work for a few hours.
Today there are such mobile devices also in intensive care units that allow patients to be transferred from medical centers to each other.
This is of course an array that requires skill, professional training and manpower.
First of all, one such device costs $ 65,000 and an estimate that is attached each time to a patient being treated costs 2,500 euros while also sometimes changing the estimate during treatment. Beyond that, every patient who is operated on an Acme device has a nurse who only supervises him. If an intensive care unit nurse is usually responsible for two patients, then in the case of an Acme device it is a nurse for a patient with the training of this device. The device is of course only intended for intensive care units and in emergencies it can be moved from hospital to hospital as needed. For example, at Kaplan Hospital there are usually two such devices and in the current wave because his corona ward is already full and he does not use the devices, he transferred one to Rambam and one to Assaf Harofe and these will be returned to him at the end of their need. This is important because it allows for rescue and response to patients who have no other choice.
In total in the country there are 82 Acmo devices and the procedure is that there should be one spare device for every device that works and we on this issue leave on the third side of the devices constantly on standby. Therefore, today, when there are 50 patients connected to Acme in all of Israel, 40 other Corona patients, we are close to the failure of this system. This is not about the stinginess of the state. We in Israel are very generous in the field of saving human lives because we have 10 devices for every nine million inhabitants while in rich Britain there are a third of these devices. They only have 200 devices on the whole population. We are also with 12 centers that know how to operate Acme while in the UK there are only six centers. This generosity is also reflected in the fact that in the corona waves 350 patients were treated in Acme in the country and this is a very large amount.
I must also note that our experience in operating the devices also meant that at the beginning of the epidemic we managed to save only 50 percent of these patients and now we save 65 percent and more so Israel really invests itself in the field and is very generous in saving lives and the value of sanctity of life much more than other countries. This is of course the ideal of the Acme company that I have the right to head in Israel, we want to reach everyone who needs it everywhere so now the country is also working very hard to train 3 more hospitals to operate Acme devices, in Nahariya, Brazilian and Hillel Yaffe. It is a decision that requires a lot of training and resources when a patient can be transferred from the periphery to the center. A patient with a lung collapse can survive well for 4 hours without the device almost without injury. Yet the state is now promoting the training of more hospitals to operate Acmo. It has advantages and it has disadvantages as for everything. The advantage is the availability of the device on the one hand and the disadvantage is that when there are no people who are treated with the device all the time then the experience of the team working with the Acme is smaller and it is less good.
It is important to emphasize that these are reliable devices with very few faults.
While this reliability includes real-time faults like an air bubble or blood clot in the system but for that there is a nurse in place and another device as a backup.
But in terms of engines and system these are reliable systems.
For example now there is one device that has worked for 20 years and its engine is running out.
The engine ran out many years after the manufacturer's warranty expired and the device was reliable and life saving all the time.
Interviewed and brought to publication - Assaf Golan