A 32-year-old woman died of COVID-19 and doctors were unable to save her 30-week fetus in an emergency cesarean section, a Jerusalem hospital announced on Sunday.
The woman, Osnat Ben Shitrit, was healthy until she recently contracted the coronavirus and previously had four mild pregnancies that ended in simple births, a Hadassah Medical Center spokeswoman told The Times of Israel.
The woman had not been vaccinated.
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The fetus had not been infected with the virus, but was born in a critical condition and did not survive, Hadassah said.
A COVID-19 patient receives a family visit at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in Jerusalem, February 1, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
The news from Hadassah reverberated throughout the Israeli health system, with doctors warning that this illustrates the growing danger that the British variant, which now accounts for almost all Israeli COVID cases, poses to pregnant women and fetuses.
Although concern about the British strain has recently focused on its transmissibility, not virulence, it is believed to have a worse impact on pregnant women than the regular strain. Last month, as the British variant spread, Israel approved vaccines for pregnant women and began encouraging women to get the vaccines.
“This news raises a red flag in relation to the dangers of COVID-19 for pregnant women,” said Prof. Galia Grisaru-Soen, director of the pediatric infectious disease department at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center, told The Times of Israel.
Ben Shitrit, a resident of the Jerusalem area, was admitted to the hospital last Tuesday due to breathing problems and started to get worse quickly on Saturday night. Doctors noticed damage to several of his organs, and a large team, including specialists in cardiology and gynecology, was set up beside his bed.
Team of medical teams wearing safety equipment while working in the coronavirus wing of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospitall in Jerusalem on February 1, 2021 (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
According to a statement by Hadassah, doctors made “very prolonged” resuscitation attempts and performed an emergency cesarean section. But the mother died and “despite tremendous efforts to save and save the life of the fetus in the intensive care unit for preterm infants”, he did not survive.
The team was left in an “emotional storm”, and the hospital “shares the family’s great pain,” the statement said.
Grisaru-Soen said: “The new variants, British and perhaps South African. they seem to be more dangerous for pregnant women, and we should encourage pregnant women, at least after the first trimester, to be vaccinated. “
On Tuesday, it was discovered that a stillborn fetus of a woman infected with the coronavirus in the city of Ashdod carried the virus, having been infected by the placenta.
