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The Sheba Medical Center team working in Israel’s Ukraine field hospital have completed the hospital’s first cesarean delivery (C-section) on Thursday afternoon after the hospital opened earlier in March. Kohav Meir (A shining star) Field Hospital is named after former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, who was born in Ukraine and founded the Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development, Cooperation and Aid program, which is currently overseeing the field hospital mission. The C-section was carried out by the Sheba Medical Center Maternity Hospital Team, in cooperation with local hospital staff in the Ukrainian city of Mostyska. The team was led by Dr. Michal Kirschenabum, along with surgeon Dr. Hadas Ilan and midwife Dana Schenkel.
The baby was delivered without any issues despite the limited equipment and resources available to the medical staff, weighing 3.32 kilos at the time of birth.
The Kohav Meir field hospital is operated by Sheba Medical Center and was inaugurated on Tuesday, March 22, to the background noise of air raid sirens. The inauguration of the hospital was attended by representatives of the Ukrainian government, the deputy health minister, the governor of the Lviv Oblast and the mayor of Mostyska, where it is located.
The baby after being delivered via a successful C-Section.
Over 60 members of Sheba’s medical staff are working in the hospital, operating even under the threat of Russian missiles, at the request of Kyiv itself, who asked that the hospital be constructed as part of Israel’s humanitarian efforts to help Ukraine. The hospital includes a triage area, an ER ward, men’s, women’s, and children’s wards, labor and delivery facilities – where Thursday’s C-Section was performed – imaging and telehealth technologies, mental health services, a lab, a pharmacy, and an outpatient clinic.
A large part of the work being undertaken in the field hospital is being done with the help of Sheba Beyond – the remote medicine unit that operates out of Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer. Sheba Beyond allows for patients to be treated and monitored by doctors and medical staff not physically on the scene themselves, allowing for more people to be treated thoroughly and at a faster pace.
The medical team prepare in the Field Hospital ahead of the C-Section surgery. (credit: NAAMA FRANK AZRIEL)
Since the field hospital opened, they have treated over 1,500 patients and have performed multiple surgeries besides Thursday’s C-Section, including orthopedic surgery on an injured refugee who arrived at the border with a broken limb. They have also performed close to 8,000 lab analyses. “Our mission is to make sure that Ukrainian people know that they are not alone,” says Yoel Har-Even, Director of Sheba Global who leads the Sheba mission alongside Prof. Elhanan Bar-On, director of the Israel Center for Humanitarian Emergency and Disaster Medicine. “We have a clear moral obligation not to look away. As human beings, as medical professionals, and as Jews.”
Published MARCH 31, 2022 The Jerusalem Post
