Condition of 2 soldiers wounded in Syria clash, one shot in the heart, has stabilized

Two of the soldiers wounded in a clash in Beit Jann in southern Syria last week are now in stable condition in the intensive care unit, Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center says.

The two arrived by military helicopter directly from the field, in critical condition.

They had were operated on for life-threatening gunshot wounds. One of them was shot in the chest, and the bullet penetrated his vest and stopped inside the heart.

“The surgery was complex and challenging, and included opening the chest both from the side and from the center in order to stop the source of the bleeding,” says Prof. Gil Bolotin, director of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at the hospital.

The bullet passed between the heart’s septa, the walls of tissue that separate the heart into different chambers. The doctors “unanimously” decided to leave the bullet in place.

“We may need to operate again to remove the bullet from the heart, we may choose to remove it by catheterization, and there is definitely a possibility that the bullet will remain where it is,” Bolotin says. “Today he is already recovering and communicating with those around him.”