IDF Saves Life of 13-Year-Old PA Boy

By Lyn Leahz on February 24, 2013 • ( 3 )

An IDF medical team on Sunday saved the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian Authority dialysis patient.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

First Publish: 2/5/2013, 3:15 PM

Israeli hospital (illustrative)

An IDF medical team on Sunday saved the life of a 13-year-old Palestinian Authority dialysis patient whose life was in danger due to the worsening of his condition.

“We received a call around nine in the morning from the Chief Medical Officer of the Judea and Samaria Division informing us that there was a boy hospitalized in the Jenin hospital in need of further intensive care,” said Lt. Abed Rabah, Medical Officer of the Menashe Regional Brigade in the Judea and Samaria Division, according to the blog of the Israel Defense Forces.

The Division Medical Officer was contacted when the child’s condition escalated after he had been anesthetized and attached to a breathing tube, which resulted in pulmonary edema – fluid accumulation in the air spaces of the lungs. The IDF transferred him to the Rambam Healthcare Campus in Haifa, whose Meyer Children’s Hospital specializes in Pediatric Nephrology Dialysis.

“The most critical issue for us in the first stage was to get him to breathe on his own again, not mechanically,” said Cpl. Jonathan Friedland, a paramedic with the Judea and Samaria Division. “The doctors at the Jenin hospital were unable to get him out of his mechanical breathing.”

The team – consisting of an ambulance driver, a paramedic and a medical officer – received the child and his mother at the Gilboa-Jalame crossing, from where they were transported immediately to the Rambam Health Care Campus, according to the IDF Blog.

“Throughout the ride, we continued supporting him with anesthetics and kept him connected to a breathing tube,” explained Lt. Rabah.

The boy arrived safely at the Haifa healthcare facility and is in stable condition.

“The Muslim boy was taken care of by a Jewish paramedic [and] a Druze medical officer and was transported in an ambulance driven by a Christian soldier,” said Lt. Rabah.

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