Parents of brain dead Lebanon vet slam hospital for malpractice

By Ran Reznick, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Israel, Rambam Medical Center

Was Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center guilty of negligence in its treatment of Yonatan Levin’s head wounds when the 26-year-old soldier was hit by a mortar shell in the Second Lebanon War? Was the biggest head surgery ward in the North prepared to treat seriously wounded soldiers? Was the Neurosurgery Department working with a skeleton staff and without some of its senior surgeons? And who authorized the department’s head to go on vacation to Eilat during the war?

These are only some of the questions of a special committee examining claims by Yonatan’s parents – Rachel and Avishar Levin – who have accused the Rambam medical staff of malpractice. Their son is now in a coma at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer.

Over the past two months, some 20 hospital workers and senior doctors have given testimony to the committee, all denying any wrongdoing. And on Thursday, four senior neurosurgeons headed by Professor Menashe Zaaroor petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Health Ministry’s director general, Avi Israeli, the four committee members and Yonatan’s parents. The petitioners say the investigation has been conducted unfairly and improperly, and want the minister to call back the committee and ignore its findings.

Most of their complaints are aimed at top neurosurgeon and committee member Eliyahu Reichenthal and claimed that the professor should be disqualified from sitting on the panel because of a conflict of interest. The court ruled that the Health Ministry must submit a response within two weeks.

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