For the First Time in Israel—Eight Year Old Girl Receives Angioplasty
The girl arrived at Hadassah after suffering from shortness of breath after being infected with a Streptococcus bacterium and developing rheumatic fever that had nearly closed her mitral heart valve.
The medical staff had to decide whether to do bypass surgery or to perform angioplasty using a balloon stent to expand the damaged heart valve. Because of the age of the girl and concerns for her further growth and the development of her heart, they used the balloon stent for the first time in Israel on a child so young, and had to order special equipment from abroad, suitable to the girl’s size.
The operation was done by staff under the leadership of Prof. Azaria Rein, Head of Pediatric Cardiology at Hadassah’s Heart Institute, and Dr. Yoav Turgeman from Emek Medical Center in Afula, who in the past carried out a similar procedure in a 16-year-old boy. The girl was released from Hadassah two days after the procedure.