Meidan (Mordechai) Baruch-Keller, z’l, 16, who was hospitalized last week after suffering serious lung damage due to vaping passed away on Shabbos morning.
A statement from Schneider Hospital said: “It is with great sadness that we update you on the death of the 16-year-old boy who was treated in the cardiac intensive care unit at the Schneider Center and connected to an ECMO machine due to the collapse of his lungs. Initial details indicate that the boy died after apparently disconnecting himself from the ECMO for unknown reasons.”
“The details of the case were reported to the Health Ministry, are being examined at this time and will be investigated in the coming days.”
According to a Ynet report, the Health Ministry will investigate if the death was caused by a lack of vigilance on the part of the medical staff as ECMO patients are supposed to be supervised at all times. The report added that as of four years ago, patients connected to ECMO machines were almost always fully sedated. Prior to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, and even more so during the pandemic, patients were attached to ECMOs without being fully sedated as it eases the arduous process of being weaned from the machine. However, patients connected to ECMO machines while conscious are supposed to receive a proper amount of sedatives in order to ensure they don’t become agitated and should be monitored at all times.
The report speculated that as the boy’s death occurred in the middle of the night, it’s possible that a lack of adequate staff members contributed to the tragic outcome.
The niftar’s father, Yariv Keller, told Ynet that his son definitely didn’t disconnect himself from the machine.
“I had to leave the room for a minute so I called to the nurse to watch him,” he said. “Two minutes later, I heard shouting and they were doing CPR on him.”
“I saw that the hospital put out a statement that he disconnected himself. If anyone saw him disconnect the tube, they should let us know. It’s a tube connected to an artery in the neck and a wrong move can loosen it,” he said, adding that Meidan was in good spirits and was looking forward to a trip to Eilat with his family when he was released from the hospital.
He called on parents to ensure that their children don’t use electronic cigarettes, saying that there have been dozens of cases of lung collapse due to vaping in the US.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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This was not caused by nicotine vaping. It was caused by synthetic THC (“nice guy”) according to Ministry of Health officials, which is known to cause lung failure, as reported on the website of Israel’s מגזין קנאביס.