A heavily pregnant Arab-Israeli woman passed away Tuesday in the delivery room after developing complications from COVID-19.
Shurouk Jourban, 23, from the Arab village of Jisr az-Zarqa in northern Israel was admitted to the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera late last month, where it emerged that she had contracted coronavirus.
The hospital had released her after initial tests to continue the treatment at home, but after her symptoms worsened, she was rushed back to the medical center the next day and put on a ventilator.
Four days later, she underwent emergency surgery to deliver her baby girl, whom she couldn't meet due to being in critical condition. She succumbed to the disease three weeks after the emergency operation.
Dr. Boris Itzkowitz, the head of the intensive care unit at the hospital, said the young woman had developed serious complications from coronavirus and despite having no underlying health conditions, became gravely ill.
"We fought for her life every day," he said. "My heart goes out to her family."
The woman's sister, who had also contracted the virus while pregnant, died ten just days earlier. The 31-year-old woman was hospitalized earlier this month after contracting COVID-19 and a day later underwent an emergency Caesarean section to deliver her baby boy at the Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba.
She was later released from hospital, but her condition worsened, she developed a high fever and died at her home. The hospital said she was not showing any virus symptoms at the time of her release.
Both women were not vaccinated against coronavirus.
Israeli medical officials said in February that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, widely used in Israel, was safe for expectant mothers and urged them to get vaccinated, warning that the new strains of the virus appeared to cause a more serious illness in pregnant women.
The father of the two women told Ynet, that the family was still trying to process the news of their daughters' deaths. "We were waiting for both to heal and come home to celebrate their babies' birth. Now, the children will have to grow up without a mother. We are devastated."
"We have not yet recovered from the loss of one daughter only to be told another had died," he said.