15 years on, girl dies as result of Israeli baby formula tragedy

Aviva Haibi says her daughter passed away while she was on a rare break from caring for her: ‘That’s what’s sad and hurts me. She left us when I was not near her’

Aviva (L) and Noa (R) Haibi (Screenshot via Channel 10)
Aviva (L) and Noa (R) Haibi (Screenshot via Channel 10)

After four years in a coma, and 15 years after she was given faulty baby formula completely lacking in Vitamin B1, which is crucial for the development of the nervous system, Noa Haibi died on Tuesday.

Haybe’s mother told the Ynet news site that her daughter died when she was on a rare break from caring for her.

“I never went abroad, ever. I was afraid to go, I wanted to be next to her, I was afraid something would happen. And this week, of all times, I decided I was leaving. People convinced me: ‘Go out a little, the girl is fine,'” said Aviva Haibi. “I flew yesterday to Crete. I had not even landed when they told me she died. I always said that if that happened, I wanted it to happen when I held her in my arms, when I was with her. All those years I’ve been with her. That’s what’s sad and hurts me. She left us when I was not near her.”

Three infants died and some 20 were left with severe disabilities after consuming nondairy formula from batches of the Israeli-marketed brand Remedia sold between July 2003 and November 2003.

Noa Haibi was the fourth casualty in the affair.

The potentially devastating effects of Vitamin B1 deficiency came to light in Israel following the Remedia disaster over a decade ago.

Infants were hospitalized with cardiac and neurological symptoms associated with the deficiency, but it was a discussion between the children’s grandmothers in the waiting room that led to the realization that all had been given the same formula, according to Prof. Aviva Fattal-Valevski, director of the Pediatric Neurology Unit at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, who surveyed the development of 39 children who had consumed the faulty formula, starting when they were aged five to six.

With that realization, the infants were immediately given Vitamin B1 supplements and some recovered quickly.

“The body’s capacity for storing Vitamin B1 is limited,” Fattal-Valevski said last year.

“Unlike Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1 is only stored in the body for three weeks. It needs to be frequently replenished. It is critical to be aware of how important this vitamin is for child development,” she added.

“Even healthy babies might be at risk from B1 deficiency. If your infant is suffering from virus after virus, you must intervene with extra vitamins. But it’s a vicious cycle, because one of the first symptoms of lack of B1 in the system is an absence of appetite,” said Fattal-Valevski.

A food technologist at Remedia Foods was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and negligent injury in 2013 for the deaths of three babies and injuries of 23 more. Remedia CEO Gideon Landsburger and former owner Moshe Miller were exonerated.

Sue Surkes contributed to this report.

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