Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center said Saturday night that it would reduce the number of general patients it is accepting and proportionately the staff needed to treat them in order to better support the needs of its coronavirus units.
The announcement came after a 47-year-old Moshe Harazy from the Yad Eliyahu neighborhood of Tel Aviv died in the coronavirus intensive care unit at the hospital Friday night when his ventilator's breathing tube detached and staff did not catch it in time.
According to the hospital, his condition had deteriorated and he required resuscitation, which staff provided, although he still passed away.
Later, an investigation that took place on Shabbat revealed that the man’s ventilator's breathing tube had been torn out of place without the staff recognizing it in time, the hospital said.
“Hospital management has opened an investigation into the unusual incident and will draw the necessary conclusions,” a statement by Sourasky read, noting that staff were “facing multiple simultaneous alerts in the intensive care unit” and that “staff were busy responding to other patients’ emergency alerts and were only able to evacuate them [and head to the 47-year-old patient] after several minutes.”
When machines stop working or detach, there are loud beeps and other alerts to notify staff of the problem. However, as noted, staff apparently could not reach the patient in time.
Hospitals have been overcrowded in recent weeks with an increasing number of serious coronavirus patients, which hit a peak last week. Close to 2,000 people were being treated for coronavirus in Israel’s hospitals as of Saturday night, including more than 1,000 in serious condition, among them are around 300 who were intubated.
“This is an outstanding ward,” the hospital said in defense of its staff. “The hospital management backs the work of the dedicated staff who work day and night to care for the most severe coronavirus patients.”
The man left behind a wife and five children. The family was informed of the details of the incident, according to the hospital.