Brothers poisoned by pesticides leave intensive care
Published February 4, 2014
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Two brothers poisoned after inhaling pesticides in their Jerusalem home were moved out of intensive care.
Michael Gross, 7, and Yitzhak, 5, were well enough to join a music therapy session, the Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Yediot Acharonot reported Tuesday, and featured a photo of the two boys playing a large harp. They will be allowed to return home in the coming weeks and attend physical therapy on an out-patient basis, according to Yediot.
Last week the boys both were disconnected from the machines that were pumping oxygen into their hearts and lungs and on to the rest of their bodies as doctors waited for the toxins, for which there is no known cure, to leave their bodies. They squeezed their father’s hand and responded to his voice.
Their sisters Avigail and Yael, ages 1 and 4, died from the poison.
The entire family because ill on January 21 and sought medical attention for diarrhea and vomiting, but medical staff failed to diagnose their condition as poisoning. One of the girls stopped breathing the following day, and both girls died in a Jerusalem hospital.
The boys were transferred to Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikvah, where they were connected to sophisticated Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machines that took over their heart and lung functions.
The boys’ parents, Michal and Shimon Gross, who sat shiva for their daughters while running to the hospital to be with their sons, called on all Israelis and Jews around the world to pray for the recovery of their sons.
The exterminator, who used poison lethal to humans, and left it in a closed container in the apartment planning to complete the job the following day, remains under house arrest.