  In March, for the first time in Israel, physicians at Sheba Medical Center employed an innovative method that reduced body temperature and succeeded in preventing irreversible brain damage in a patient who had suffered cardiac arrest. The 32-year-old male patient was hospitalized, after undergoing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, in a comatose state at Sheba’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU). In the ICU, the patient underwent an innovative new treatment method in which his body temperature was reduced to 89.6°F - 91.4°F, and permanent brain damage was avoided. Until the present no treatment has been known to prevent permanent brain damage in cases of cardiac arrest. A new body of research published only recently in the New England Journal of Medicine demonstrated that reducing body temperature can facilitate and improve neurological healing and reduce the death rate in patients left unconscious after cardiac arrest. The new method was implemented for the first time in Israel at Sheba Medical Center and has been implemented only a few times at medical institutions all over the world. The hospital team treating this patient included Prof. Hanoh Hod, the Director of the Cardiac ICU at Sheba Medical Center, Dr. Eran Segal, Director of the Respiratory ICU, and Dr. Ilan Keidan, Director of the Pediatric Anesthesiology Unit. Because the team felt that brain damage would be permanent, the treatment method, described in recent reports as having been performed only in Austria and Australia, was initiated. Prof. Hod described the method: “The patient’s body temperature was reduced to between 89.6°F - 91.4°F degrees using instrumentation developed in Israel by the MRTE company located in Or Akiva. A continuous flow of cold water flows into a body bag into which the patient’s body has been placed, and it reduces body temperature to the desired level. This method cools the body both internally and externally. Cooling can be maintained for 24 hours. The patient was treated with this method as well as conventional treatment such as mechanical ventilation, medication to improve blood pressure levels and anti-arrhythmia drugs, which have to date been ineffective. The patient’s body temperature was then gradually increased to normal levels. The patient, who had been in a deep coma, regained consciousness after five days. He was taken off the ventilation equipment, and after a number of hours he was conversing with his family.
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