ALYN SUCCESS STORY:
LEONARD ARIEL
Leonard Ariel Andre’ev was born in November 2020 at only 27 weeks, weighing less than two pounds. He had a twin brother who died within a month due to medical complications.
Leonard Ariel was respirated from birth, and there were long periods that he was anesthetized and respirated due to an exacerbated lung disease. Breathing for him was terribly painful, leading to intensive treatment with steroids, painkillers and drugs. (He would later need drug-treatment therapy from ALYN to wean him off the medications.)
At the age of five months, in April 2021, Leonard Ariel underwent tracheal surgery at the Wolfson Medical Center. Two months later, the family met Dr. Eliezer Be’eri, Director of the Respiratory Rehabilitation Department at ALYN Hospital and Leonard Ariel began treatment at ALYN in November 2021.
Leonard Ariel’s mother shares her family’s success story with us:
“We knew we wanted to send Leonard Ariel to ALYN, which is why we had him undergo the tracheal surgery at Wolfson; it was a condition for being admitted to the Respiratory Rehabilitation Department at ALYN, and we wanted to do everything possible to have Leonard Ariel treated there.
We toured ALYN in June 2021 with Dr. Be’eri and other staff from ALYN and we were so impressed and couldn’t wait to transfer to their care. We prayed at the Kotel (Western Wall) and it was a very spiritual time.
Unfortunately, we had to stay longer in Wolfson because he started having asthma attacks. The doctors decided we needed to put him into a full coma so that his little body would stop fighting the act of breathing. He was in a medically induced coma for several months. Most heartbreaking was our fear that he might have to be kept asleep forever.
He was anesthetized and respirated for several months. When they brought him out of the coma around his first birthday, he weighed over 30 pounds – a result of massive amounts of steroids.
Soon after, a staff member from ALYN came to Wolfson with a ventilator and helped us prepare Leonard Ariel for transport.
Within a few months of treatment at ALYN, we were able to completely wean Leonard Ariel from the ventilator. Getting rid of the ventilator during the day has changed our world completely. The little things - showering, taking trips, transitioning from one place to another – are all so much easier without the added burden of an attached ventilator.
His entire time at ALYN has been during the pandemic and we have been at his side 24/7 for fifteen straight months, without being able to go home or take him with us for short home visits. During this time, the ALYN staff has made sure we have learned everything there is to know as parents of a respirated child - how to handle and maintain the ventilator machine, how to replace the cannula (tube) and more.
I'm excited to be released home with him. My dream is to be with him at home. Thanks to the progress he has made at ALYN, my dream will soon come true!”
According to Leonard Ariel’s therapists, with continued intensive motor and respiratory rehabilitation, he has reached the following milestones in his time at ALYN:
- Moves his hands and feet against gravity
- Holds a toy for the first time in his life
- Brings things to his mouth
- Transfers toys from one hand to another
- Eats on his own for the first time
- Succeeds in sitting with support, rolling and turning around.
Next year, when he is back with his family, he will enter a daycare center in Holon.
