Soldier dies after collapsing in army jail; negligence suspected
Military launches probe into circumstances behind 19-year-old soldier’s sudden loss of consciousness, eventual death
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The IDF launched an investigation into what caused an apparently healthy 19-year-old soldier to die on Monday night after she collapsed in a military prison last month, including the possibility that she received inadequate medical care leading up to the episode, the army confirmed on Tuesday.
On the evening of September 24, the soldier suddenly lost consciousness while in her cell at the army’s Prison 4 — officially, Confinement Base 394 — in the central Israeli town of Tzrifin.
She was taken to the nearby Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in critical condition. Doctors stabilized her condition, but she apparently suffered brain damage and died late Monday evening.
On Tuesday, the Haaretz newspaper reported that the military was investigating the possibility that the soldier, who was jailed on September 18 on suspicion that she was selling marijuana on her base, did not receive the medical treatment she should have after complaining to an army doctor of chest pains and diarrhea the day before she collapsed.
According to the report, the military physician prescribed her Acamol, a paracetamol pain reliever, for the discomfort and sent her away.
The soldier, whose name has not been released, was an award-winning gymnast and served in the Israeli Air Force on a base in northern Israel.
The military confirmed that an investigation had been opened “into the circumstances of the incident,” but would not elaborate further.
The Times of Israel Community.