K. is a 28 years old woman from Hebron with no children. She suffers from Lupus. She was pregnant several times in the past but had an abortion each time. A friend of hers who works as a gynecologist at Hadassah told Prof. Azaria Rein (director of pediatric cardiology unit) that she was pregnant again, and that he thought her fetus suffered from some cardiac problem, which meant an additional abortion.
Thanks to a donation from the "Heart for Peace" organization in France and HMO participation, Prof. Rein arranged for the woman to be hospitalized in Ein-Kerem last week. A world specialist in diagnosing heart problems in fetuses, Prof. Rein checked the woman and diagnosed a major heart block in the fetus. The pulse was 45 instead 150 beats per minute. It was the 38th week of the pregnancy, too late to reverse the situation of the heart. The baby – we'll call her J. - was delivered with the close help of the physicians, and her pulse was 45 beats per minutes, which meant a certain death within a short time. This was definitely not the plan of the Hadassah team.
Prof. Azaria Rein, Dr. Zeev Perles and Dr. Julius Golender (Pediatric Cardiologists), together with Dr. Jacques Braun (Pediatric Intensive Care) attached a temporary external heart pacemaker to the little baby girl's chest in order to stabilize her pulse. The day after, a regular pacemaker was implanted in her by pediatric surgeon Dr. Eli Milgelter and director of electrophysiology in the heart institute Prof. Shimon Rosenheck.
Now let's go over the chronology again:
Last Monday (March 23) – Baby is born with a complete heart block, pulse 45 and weighing 4.8lb. A temporary pace maker is attached.
Last Tuesday (March 24) – One day old baby undergoes a major surgery and receives a regular pace maker.
Today (April 1st) – 9 days baby J. and mother K. go home.