A 32-year-old woman and her fetus died of COVID-19 late Saturday night after receiving treatment at Hadassah-University Medical Center, the hospital reported Sunday morning.
The woman entered the hospital last Tuesday when she began experiencing respiratory distress. Her condition quickly deteriorated until she suffered from multisystem organ failure.
A multidisciplinary medical team made efforts to treat her, the hospital said, including performing prolonged resuscitation efforts. The 30-week-old fetus was delivered via emergency C-section in an effort to save it.
Despite the mother being hooked up to an ECMO machine and the heroic work of the staff, they ultimately both died.
Hadassah said its staff is very emotional over the loss.
“The whole Hadassah team shares in the heavy grief of the family,” a statement read.
Last week, a 25-week-old fetus died at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital after contracting COVID-19 from his mother. The fetus had contracted the virus via what is known as vertical transmission, meaning it was actually passed from mother to baby via the placenta.
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This was the first fetus to die in such a way in Israel.
According to Prof. Arnon Wiznitzer, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, to date, in only between 1% and 3% of cases worldwide has a pregnant mother directly passed on the virus to her baby.
The country opened up vaccination to pregnant women last month after it became clear that this third wave of coronavirus is striking younger people. Dozens of pregnant women have been hospitalized in recent months and several babies delivered preterm while their mother’s struggle to survive in intensive care units.
In previous waves, pregnant women were not considered high risk for serious cases of coronavirus.
Health experts believe the increase in young people catching coronavirus is tied to the British mutation. Genetic sequencing of several pregnant Israeli women revealed they were infected with the variant.
Earlier this month, when Haemek Medical Center had three pregnant women in serious condition in the hospital at the same time, the head of its Labor and Delivery ward, Dr. Raed Salim, called on women to get vaccinated.
“I recommend pregnant women and women planning to get pregnant to get vaccinated against coronavirus soon,” he cautioned.
“The dilemma over whether to get vaccinated is understandable but unjustified,” said Dr. Ortal Neeman from Assuta’s gynecology and obstetrics department on Sunday. “To date, no women have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Israel after a second vaccination.”She called on women to “take care of yourselves and your fetuses. Any deliberation entails an unnecessary possibility of infection.”
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