Within 70 days: 20 babies in Jerusalem died in their sleep

News » Health

Shaare Zedek, a doctor at the hospital, said that at least eight bodies of babies who died in their sleep were brought to them, and that “at first glance, this is a high figure.” Also in Hadassah Ha Ha Tzofim, a large number of cases are spoken of. However, experts are still unable to provide clear explanations.

Alarming data on infant mortality in Jerusalem: in the past two months, at least 20 cases of death of infants who died in their sleep have been recorded. This data comes from Hadassah and "Shaare Zedek" and does not include hospitals in the eastern part of the city.

This week, Dr. Giora Weiser, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Shaare Zedek, told mynet and Yediot Yerushalayim: “At first glance, this is a high figure. On the other hand, we must remember that at this time of the year (winter season) we know cases of death in the cradle and death of babies in general.

However, it should be noted that some of the babies in question were around two years of age, so a case of death in the cradle is completely ruled out. A senior medical official in Jerusalem wants to add: “Over the past year, I have been paying attention to cases of cardiac arrest in infants, which is very common in winter, although there have been a few cases in summer. I don't know how to explain it.

Back in mid-January, mynet reported that four babies had died within a few weeks. Then medical officials treated this situation as an exception. But now it turns out that even from the second half of January until last week, there were many more cases of babies dying in their sleep.

“It's true that there have been quite a few infant deaths lately,” Dr. Weiser tells us this week. “However, these cases occur at this time of the year, and I mean winter. The question is, what is the cause of death? We can't tell without an autopsy, and it's usually not done.”

50% of nursing deaths occur mostly in winter – sometimes due to overheating or airway blockage and/or rebreathing of exhaled air caused by a blanket or positions such as sleeping on your back. However, as already mentioned, medical officials in the city are careful not to claim that it is “cradle death” because of the complexity involved in such a definition. Senior Officer at Magen David Adom explained that “Death in the cradle is an unexpected and unexplained event in babies under the age of one year. However, babies at this age do not “live” long enough to determine whether they have serious illnesses or not.

Follow us on Telegram