A device that prevents respiratory complications and was invented, developed, and manufactured in Israel is currently being used to treat coronavirus patients hospitalized in intensive care units in Wuhan, China – the city where the now-global outbreak began.
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The device, invented by the Kfar Saba-based Hospitech Respiration, is designed to prevent serious infections that develop in many patients on ventilators, thereby increasing their chances of recovering from the illness.
Trials at three Israeli hospitals, including the Rambam Healthcare Campus, as well as European medical centers, have shown that the device significantly reduces the instances of pneumonia in patients attached to ventilators or other respiratory equipment. The intensive care units at Rambam and The Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer are currently using the Hospitech invention.
The device is also in use at the Mayo Clinic's Jacksonville, Florida campus, a major international center for liver and lung transplants, where it has been used on over 50 patients.
According to the World Health Organization, some 5% of coronavirus patients require ventilators, and some 15% need assistance with breathing.
The Hospitech devices were delivered to Wuhan two weeks ago by special medical teams who arrived in the city to bolster existing medical services. It has been used on about 10 corona patients, most of whom are physicians who had contracted the virus during the course of treating patients.
