Walls of Love

Due to the worsening security situation, medical teams at Schneider Children's transferred critically-ill infants and children to the emergency protected shelter in the hospital in a complex procedure that ensued some 10 hours.

The shelter, which was most recently used as a coronavirus ward, was immediately prepared to receive the most serious children from the cardiac, pediatric and neonatal intensive units who require vigilant life-saving care. In addition, some of the fragile infants from the Neonatal Department were transferred to an alternate protected area.

The transfer operation, which was supervised by the hospital's CEO, Dr. Efrat Bron-Harlev, included moving the children one by one in the most careful way possible, while safeguarding the connections of medical devices attached to each patient such as ventilators and resuscitation equipment. Staff members from all arenas in the hospital participated in the operation from doctors and nurses to electricians, maintenance and logistics personnel, technicians, technologists, computer experts, administration, sanitation, pharmacy, social work, and personnel from the kitchen, cleaners and housekeeping.

Dr. Bron-Harlev noted that "following the deteriorating security situation, we made the difficult decision to open the emergency shelter for the most critically ill patients. This is a completely protected area which is located underground on the hospital's first floor. We prepared the area to house all the ventilated infants and children in the hospital from the pediatric, cardiac and neonatal intensive care units. This was an operation that took about 10 hours of complex coordination and logistics, which culminated in the safe transfer of all the patients. I would like to thank all our dedicated teams who participated in this undertaking. We truly hope to be able to return to the proper departments soon."