All of the coronavirus patients currently on heart-lung (ECMO) machines are under 60 years of age, Yediot Aharonot reported.
All of those who died after using an ECMO machine were unvaccinated, data from the Israeli ECMO Society shows.
A total of six vaccinated patients were hooked up to ECMO machines, all of them over age 60 and vaccinated 4-6 months ago. The other 25 coronavirus patients on ECMO machines - other than one - were ages 38-60, and were unvaccinated.
According to Yediot Aharonot, the use of ECMO machines has become one of the central benchmarks in how well Israel is coping with the coronavirus pandemic. Approximately half of the patients hooked up to an ECMO machine have died due to various complications of the virus.
In recent months, since the beginning of the fourth coronavirus wave, 31 very severely ill patients were placed on ECMO machines, and five of them, all of whom were unvaccinated, died.
"The central thing we are seeing from this data is the fact that the patients who are not vaccinated are the worst cases," said Dr. Yigal Kassif, who heads the Israeli ECMO Society.
"The ECMO machine is the most critical expression of the disease, and of the virus' harsh attack on the respiratory system and the lungs. When we talk about seriously ill patients, in some of these cases we're talking about those who smile and communicate.
"The only six vaccinated patients who are hooked up to ECMO machines are over age 60 and were vaccinated 4-6 months ago. I will say this as nicely as possible: Vaccines protect from death, or at least from ECMO. Whoever hasn't seen a coronavirus patient on an ECMO does not understand what he is talking about. These are people in a tragic situation who in their last days cannot even say goodbye to their loved ones."
Dr. Arie Soroksky, director of the Intensive Care Unit at Holon's Wolfson Medical Center, said: "All of the patients we placed on ECMOs are unvaccinated."
"People who were not vaccinated, especially young people, are very vulnerable, and some of them end up in serious condition." He explained, "If a patient lacks oxygen, we give him oxygen. When that's not enough, we put him on a ventilator. In extreme cases even the ventilator cannot save the patient, because his lungs are so sick that they won't manage to oxygenate his blood. In these cases we hook him up to an ECMO. Only after I speak with the families of those who are hooked up to ECMOs do they go get vaccinated."