Israeli medical teams and ambulance crews were credited last night with saving the life of a six-week-old Lebanese baby boy born with a congenital heart defect who was brought to the gap in the border fence near Metullah by his grandmother yesterday. He was close to death at the time.
Emergency surgery was performed on the infant, Ayad Jackie, at Tel Hashomer Hospital here. The hospital’s staff and facilities were mobilized to help the child despite the current rule-book work slowdown by physicians demanding higher pay.
The infant, a so-called “blue baby.” came from Marj Ayoun village in Lebanon. He was unable to reach a Lebanese hospital because of fighting in the region. Doctors at the border fence clinic rushed him to Safad Hospital where the child’s condition was diagnosed. He was placed in an oxygen-supplied special ambulance that raced more than 100 kilometers to Tel Aviv where a surgical team was waiting at the hospital. It performed the lengthy, complicated operation necessary to provide oxygen to the baby’s heart.
By midnight, the patient’s condition was greatly improved. Doctors at Tel Hashomer said they would give the infant a few weeks to regain his strength and would then perform open-heart surgery in an attempt to repair a defective heart valve. The baby’s grandmother was allowed to remain at the hospital.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
