Hadassah said that two of the toddlers “suffer from severe chronic background illnesses.” The medical center also noted that “one of the children is two years old in serious condition, the other is 6 weeks old in serious condition, the third is only 13 days old in stable condition, and the fourth is 9 months old, without background illnesses, in serious condition.”
The director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem, Dr. Uri Pollak, explained that the unit was established for “children and infants in Corona who need respiration or intensive care by a team whose specialty is anesthesia and intensive care for children. Our three baby patients are being resuscitated and anesthetized, and are suffering from a significant lung disease. Their situation is very difficult. Another baby in stable condition. “
The unit’s head nurse, Sonia Sharabi, shared: “These are babies whose parents themselves or some members of the family are also ill. The parents can come here and would like to stay here 24/7, but are torn between caring for other children at home and staying in the unit next to the babies. On the axis of a house and a hospital.
“As staff we all contain their immense difficulty, the babies need a hug, a touch, and when there is no parent next to them it is very difficult to think about their coping. We all try to help in everything, of course staff are always inside for long hours to keep a close eye.”
Sharabi noted that the family of the one-and-a-half-month-old baby watched him through a video call. “His six brothers watched him from a distance and said their little brother was cute and sweet,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking, so we have a responsibility to both take care and maintain professionalism at the highest level, and also to hug and caress and help emotionally and be of course available at all times, to connect parents and siblings to the little ones.
“The workload is heavy and our staff does sacred work around the clock on hard shifts. Some of the nurses are routed to the corona wards of the adults, where they help a lot as specialists in the field of respiration and intensive care, and those who remain to work here in our children’s unit. The sick children in Corona are in serious condition.
“Every child is a world in its entirety, some without the parents by their side and the treatment is close – day and night: long hours in the cumbersome protective clothing, prolonged and unexpected severe resuscitation, and close monitoring of every breath.”