The women, all three who delivered their babies through emergency procedures and who were ultimately connected to extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, were disconnected in the last week and are now being treated in the hospital’s coronavirus internal medicine ward.
An ECMO machine is a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide from a patient’s blood and sends it back oxygen-filled.
The women’s situations had been defined as life-threatening for several days.
“These are the exciting moments in which our work is truly rewarding,” said Dr. Ilya Kagan, director of the hospital’s intensive care unit, who helped treat these patients.
“We fought for their lives, not stopping even for a moment,” Kagan added. “We did not let the moments of despair win forever. I am happy to see them breathing on their own, smiling and communicating with their spouses and other family members.
“After such a long process, the women, their families and our staff are just happy,” he concluded.
The women include a 33-year-old woman from Jerusalem who arrived at the hospital 31 weeks pregnant; a 35-year-old woman who had been transferred to Rabin from Laniado Hospital in Netanya at week 31; and a 40-year-old woman who was in her 28th week.
One of the babies has already been released from the hospital. Two others are being treated at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Israel.
One of the women, the hospital said, has already seen her preterm infant at Schneider.
As of Saturday night, there were 28 pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19, the Health Ministry told The Jerusalem Post. In addition, there are 13 women who were pregnant and hospitalized but already gave birth via emergency deliveries.
Of the 41 women, 28 of them were not vaccinated, the Health Ministry said. Two of them had received their first dose of the vaccine. Another woman had received both doses, but seven days had not passed since getting her second jab before she became ill with the virus.
The three women being treated at Rabin are now receiving physiotherapy treatments and will soon be released for rehabilitation.
Prof. Arnon Wiznitzer, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the hospital used the good news to remind pregnant women to get vaccinated.
“It’s important,” he said. “It’s lifesaving.”