Baby with Rare Breathing Disability Successfully Transported from Israel to Florida for Lifesaving Procedure

By Hamodia Staff

YERUSHALAYIM – A baby girl with a unique birth defect that prevents her from breathing on her own was flown from Israel to Florida where she will be receiving treatment to correct the condition.

On Monday afternoon, United Hatzalah Operations Department received a request to transfer a one-month-old baby girl from Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petach Tikvah to Ben Gurion Airport for an urgent medical flight.

The destination was a hospital in Miami, Florida which specializes in respiratory defects. The baby is currently only able to breathe with the assistance of a ventilator.

For the purpose of accomplishing the transfer, an EMS team, consisting of a doctor, a paramedic, and two EMTs, was required to arrive and transfer the child with her parents within two hours. 

Three volunteers from Modiin responded to the request and took up the mission of bringing a mobile intensive care ambulance and joining Dr. Gensler, who made the request, for the transport.

The volunteers, Paramedic Itzik Kara, EMT Adina Raph, and ambulance driver Avi Deblinger, transferred the baby with all the necessary equipment from Schneider to the airport. It took a total of 5 hours and ended successfully with the baby and parents inside the plane, where they were cared for by in-flight medical team. 

Afterwards, Avi recounted: “We got a special request from the Operations Department and we immediately got organized and went to get the baby girl from Schneider’s hospital. Our goal is always to respond in the shortest amount of time possible and provide the highest level of care for the patient. We are all experienced in providing medical care in a variety of life-saving missions, so when we received the request, we didn’t hesitate at all. I hope and pray that the baby gets through her procedure and can live normally.”