Her life was saved at the last moment: 11-year-old girl underwent emergency brain surgery after being injured during play
The girl was playing with a relative and suddenly ran into a rope, injuring her head. Moments before entering surgery, her condition deteriorated and she lost consciousness. Emergency surgery performed at the neurosurgical unit at Ziv Medical Center saved her life. "If the girl had not been treated immediately, she could have died."
Saving a life at the 90th minute: Sh., an 11-year-old girl from the north, was playing with a relative when she suddenly ran into a taut rope she had not noticed. She was thrown with force to the ground and injured her head. Her parents rushed to take her to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where she complained of severe headaches while showing signs of neck bruising.
A CT scan performed on-site showed that she was suffering from an epidural intracranial hemorrhage—bleeding between the skull bone and the brain membrane—and she had to undergo urgent surgery. However, while she was waiting to enter the operating room, there was a sudden deterioration in her condition: she began to convulse, lost consciousness, and one of her pupils dilated—a sign that can indicate a dangerous increase in intracranial pressure and pressure on the brainstem.
Given her condition, the girl was immediately taken into the operating room. In a neurosurgical procedure known as a craniotomy, the surgeon, Dr. Hagai Swissa, opened a part of the skull bone to reach the intracranial space, stop the active bleeding, and aspirate the blood clot that caused the dangerous pressure on the brain. Afterward, the piece of bone was returned to its place and fixed.
At the end of the surgery, Sh. was transferred to the pediatric intensive care unit while sedated and ventilated. After an improvement in her condition and she was weaned off the ventilator, she was transferred to the pediatric ward and subsequently discharged home.
Dr. Samuel Tobias, director of the neurosurgical unit, says:
"If the girl had not been treated immediately, she could have died."
The neurosurgical unit at Ziv opened a year and a half ago, and so far, about 130 highly complex neurosurgical operations have been performed there, including surgeries to remove complex brain tumors, and to remove tumors and treat problems in the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine.
"When it comes to a head injury, every minute can be critical, hence the importance of its operation. Residents of the Galilee and the Golan receive advanced neurosurgical treatment close to home, instead of having to travel to distant hospitals, and many of these surgeries save their lives," says Prof. Salman Zarka, director of the medical center.
