Featured Post
Free The Hostages! Bring Them Home!
(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...
Jul 11, 2013
D&C of dead fetus delayed to avoid impurity for kohanim
This is a crazy story that does not make much sense to me.
Channel 2 news reported the other day that a 30 year old woman could not get a D&C performed to remove a dead fetus from her womb. She was sent home and told to return the next day. The reason given to her, minutes before the anesthesia was to be applied, was that the operating room did not have a small vestibule in front, and removing the fetus at that time would therefore cause a problem for any kohanim in the hospital. This happened in Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv.
A hospital worker said that the rav of the hospital is very strict about these things and is regularly walking around the hospital making sure things are done properly.
Other surgery rooms in the hospital have systems in place to deal with the impurity and ensure no problems for kohanim.
The hospital publicized that in order to respect all the different types of people who come and use the services, the hospital is committed to protecting the rules of tahara for kohanim. Therefore, D&Cs are done according to halacha and in a special area, so kohanim can walk freely in the hospital. The hospital also said regarding this specific case that it was a mistake in scheduling that caused the problem, with the wrong surgery room being arranged for the procedure. When the mistake was discovered, the patient was told to come back the next day for the procedure, and at no time was she ever in any health danger.
It happens to be that I was in Assuta this week a couple of times to accompany and visit someone who was there to have a surgery. I asked a couple nurses if the story was accurate as reported. The nurses I spoke had heard that something happened, but they only heard it because there had been a news story on the television about it. They did not know any "inside" info, and could not confirm or deny the details. I knew more than they did, and all I had done was read the Channel 2 News article.
It is good that they take halacha into their procedural considerations, but I feel bad for the patient who had to suffer because of it. Even without any danger to her health, it must have been difficult and even traumatic for her to prepare for a fetus removal and then be told to come back the next day.
Channel 2 news reported the other day that a 30 year old woman could not get a D&C performed to remove a dead fetus from her womb. She was sent home and told to return the next day. The reason given to her, minutes before the anesthesia was to be applied, was that the operating room did not have a small vestibule in front, and removing the fetus at that time would therefore cause a problem for any kohanim in the hospital. This happened in Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv.
A hospital worker said that the rav of the hospital is very strict about these things and is regularly walking around the hospital making sure things are done properly.
Other surgery rooms in the hospital have systems in place to deal with the impurity and ensure no problems for kohanim.
The hospital publicized that in order to respect all the different types of people who come and use the services, the hospital is committed to protecting the rules of tahara for kohanim. Therefore, D&Cs are done according to halacha and in a special area, so kohanim can walk freely in the hospital. The hospital also said regarding this specific case that it was a mistake in scheduling that caused the problem, with the wrong surgery room being arranged for the procedure. When the mistake was discovered, the patient was told to come back the next day for the procedure, and at no time was she ever in any health danger.
It happens to be that I was in Assuta this week a couple of times to accompany and visit someone who was there to have a surgery. I asked a couple nurses if the story was accurate as reported. The nurses I spoke had heard that something happened, but they only heard it because there had been a news story on the television about it. They did not know any "inside" info, and could not confirm or deny the details. I knew more than they did, and all I had done was read the Channel 2 News article.
It is good that they take halacha into their procedural considerations, but I feel bad for the patient who had to suffer because of it. Even without any danger to her health, it must have been difficult and even traumatic for her to prepare for a fetus removal and then be told to come back the next day.
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts
IF it is true as you heard it, it is a scandal on several grounds.
ReplyDeleteAsking a mother to retain a known dead fetus unnecessarily increases her risk of infection and other complications. It is also simply cruel, and it reflects badly on someone's notion of halacha that we would inflict such cruelty on a woman for dubious reasons (we don't actually know that a cohen would be exposed to tumat ohel at that moment; the nature of the prohibition is questionable because he is anus; etc.). I have to assume there is something missing in the story, because otherwise it is unconscionable and a hillul hashem.
it sounds crazy. I never heard of medical procedures being stopped in a hospital due to concern for kohanim. as far as I know they generally dowhat the y need to do and then figure out what to do with the kohanim
ReplyDeleteA stillborn baby does not receive any halachic considerations of being alive. How can it cause an issue of tumah?
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't know the answer to this one. If were to assume that the fetus was tamei, how would that tumah be contained within the mother?
Are they just as rude to families who inconvenience the Kohanin by having their relatives die in the hospital.
it is rambam/gemara that a stillborn (after 40 days) is tamei - after it is expelled from the womb.
Deletei am skeptical about the whole story. having said that, a lot more people have procedures delayed because of doctors and nurses strikes than because of strict rabbis.
I know you're just using this as an item, but channel 2 is a very bad source of 'Jewish news'. We all know that there are issues in all hospitals. At any given time, there might be someone who has passed away and not yet put in the morgue. Does Assuta have some alarm to report everytime someone is flatlining so the kohanim can leave the hospital?
ReplyDelete