New! The Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has received approval to operate an ECMO machine – the machine replaces heart-lung action for a period during which their function is severely limited

The authorization to operate the ECMO machines was given this week by a Ministry of Health special committee, which authorized that the medical center is absolutely ready for immediate operation of the machines. This is a licensing process which the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center has been working to obtain for a long time, for the benefit of its patients. The significance of there being an ECMO machine in the hospital is that a patient who needs to be treated with the machine will not need to be transferred to a different hospital, with the transfer itself endangering the life of a critically ill patient.

Director of Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Dr. Mickey Dudkiewicz: “I would like to thank the heads of the regional councils and cities in our area for their commitment to the residents’ good health, to MK Ofir Katz for the time and efforts which he invested as a member of the Knesset Health Committee in working to obtain the authorization, as well as everyone who helped and contributed so that this essential medical service would be available for patients at Hillel Yaffe. I would like to warmly thank the Helmsley Charitable Trust for its generous grant which enabled the purchase of two ECMO machines – without which the entire process would not have been complete.”

Mr. Sandor Frankel, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said: "One of Helmsley’s principal objectives is improving access to healthcare, including the most advanced medical technology available, throughout Israel, especially in the north and south. Helmsley is pleased to have enabled life-saving ECMO at Hillel Yaffe, without the need to transfer critically ill patients to other hospitals for this treatment.”