Health and hospital officials are investigating the death of a 1-year-old boy in Assaf HaRofeh Hospital. Hospital officials reported the child died as a result of an extremely aggressive infection, which resulted in the rapid deterioration of his primary organs.

The bereaved mother however has a different story, detailing how she was “ridiculed” and “ignored” by the nurses and emergency room staff, and how she and her child were compelled to wait for endless hours as she observed his condition continued to deteriorate.

The child, Li’el Ben-Nun z”l from Lod arrived in the hospital, brought by his mother, presenting with a fever — in a state of general malaise. Mom explained that she first when to her HMO and she was instructed to immediate report to an emergency room, with the doctor wishing to rule out an “aggressive potentially life-threatening infection”.

Mom explains that the incident occurred about two weeks ago, and “if the hospital would have given proper attention to the HMO referral, her child might be alive today”.

She explained that they literally sat for hours and hours, during which time the child’s condition deteriorated, and even after an infusion of fluids, he stopped putting out urine, but the staff played down her concerns, until the child’s condition took a sharp turn for the worse. He was then rushed to an intensive care unit where he died a short time later.

Assaf HaRofeh officials report he child died of an aggressive meningococcal infection that at times presents at a benign virus, as was the case, which took a sudden and unpredictable turn for the worse, resulting in a total collapse of the child’s vital systems.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)