A 45-year-old female COVID-19 patient died, and doctors were unable to save her fetus, a Be'er Sheva hospital announced on Monday.
While the woman, a resident of the southern Bedouin town of Tel Sheva, was healthy until she recently contracted the novel coronavirus and was not vaccinated against the pathogen, the cause of her death remains unclear, Soroka Medical Center announced.
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Mobile MDA intensive care unit arrives at Be'er Sheva's Soroka Medical Center
(Photo: Barel Efraim)
The deceased, who was 9-months pregnant, was transported to a local clinic in Tel Sheva with no vital signs. It was not immediately clear how long she had been in this condition. A Magen David Adom (MDA) team that arrived at the scene began resuscitation efforts that lasted about half an hour.
She was rushed by a mobile MDA intensive care unit to the shock room at Soroka around 9:30am. Doctors later announced her death after resuscitation efforts failed.
Members of her family did not provide any further details.
Late last month, an unborn child has died at Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba after its mother contracted COVID-19.
The woman, who was 36 weeks into her pregnancy, arrived at the hospital after reporting decreased fetal movement, and a coronavirus test showed the fetus had also contracted the virus.
Several days earlier, 32-year-old Osnat Ben-Shitrit died of COVID-19 and doctors were unable to save her 30-week fetus in an emergency C-section at Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center.
Ben Shitrit was healthy until she contracted the virus, and previously had four smooth pregnancies that ended in straightforward births, a spokeswoman for the hospital said.
Israel's healthcare providers reported that immunization rates among pregnant women surged significantly in the days following her death.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, skepticism around vaccinating pregnant women against COVID-19 led to heated discussions about the potential risks the jab posed to the health of expecting mothers and their feti.
Last month, Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital Dr. Ortal Neeman urged prenatal women to get vaccinated posthaste.
“The dilemma over whether to get vaccinated is understandable but unjustified. To date, no women have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Israel after [receiving] the second [vaccine] dose," Neeman said.
"I call on women in the strongest way: Go get vaccinated and the sooner the better. Take care of yourself and your fetuses. Any hesitance entails an unnecessary possibility of infection."