06/18/2026
Following the quick and professional intervention of medical teams at Shaare Zedek Medical Center Jerusalem, the life of a one-year-old child, who had not received the recommended course of infant vaccinations, was saved after arriving in the hospital in a life-threatening condition.
The case began when the infant was brought by ambulance to the Glaubach Department of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Shaare Zedek in serious condition. While first responders initially suspected the boy had attempted to swallow a foreign object which had become lodged in his throat, initial clinical examinations by the emergency room physicians determined that not to be the case.
Upon discussion with the boy’s father, the hospital teams understood the baby was unvaccinated which led them to surmise he has been infected with the infection, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) which had caused the tightening of his throat. Further clinical and lab testing confirmed that initial diagnosis.
With the patient exhibiting extreme breathing complications, the pediatric anesthesiology team at Shaare Zedek, led by Dr. Mordechai Sherki and Dr. Shmuel Basmut, with the assistance of nurses Naava Vanda and Benny Greenwald, immediately began a complex intubation procedure to stabalize the patient.
Dr. Efrat Blankenstein, a resident physician in the Department of Pediatric explained, “This child was literally minutes away from dying. This is a rare case that we haven’t seen at Shaare Zedek in several decades and until now had been the type of theoretical case that we only train for. If the baby had undergone the proper round of vaccinations, this could have been completely avoided. Thankfully our trauma teams were prepared with the proper equipment and staffing support, otherwise this story would have had a completely different ending.”
“Incidence of cases like this, where infections constrict the throat, have gone down considerably due to a common vaccine used to address Hib,” explained Dr. Shani Messner-Fieiereisen, a resident in the Pediatric Department. “This condition can lead to an infection around the cartilage tissue that is designed to prevent food from entering into the treacha and when inflamed it can block the respiratory tract. Symptoms can appear suddenly and intensify very quickly.”
Dr. Moria Paizer-Rosenberg from the ENT Department at Shaare Zedek added, “The initial report came that the baby was chocking as a result of something he had eaten. But we quickly determined that it was something else altogether based on the fiber-optic imaging scan we performed to view the child’s upper respiratory tract and to see if there was indeed a blockage. We are all deeply grateful that we were able to save the child’s life due to the close cooperation between all our teams that enabled us to provide the immediate life-saving intervention he needed at that time.”
PICTURED: Dr. Dr. Moria Paizer-Rosenberg, and Dr. Shani Messner-Fieiereisen (left) and Dr. Efrat Blankenstein (right) See less
