R to L: Dr. Milton Saute, Dr. Tommy Schonfeld, Dr. Gabi Amir

Dr. Milton Saute, Director of the Lung and Cardiothoracic Surgery Department at Rabin Medical Center performed a rare operation to rebuild and widen the trachea of a 9-month-old infant at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Israel. The two hospitals, located on the same campus, are part of Clalit Health Services and several of Rabin Medical Center's physicians also perform complicated operations on children hospitalized at Schneider Children’s Medical Center.

The infant, a baby girl, was born with congenital tracheal stenosis, and was transferred from another hospital to the Intensive Care Unit at Schneider Children's Medical Center. She was on a ventilator in critical condition and suffering from respiratory failure due to a malformation of the windpipe which prevented her from breathing on her own. The complicated operation required rebuilding and widening the entire trachea allowing the infant to breathe on her own. Without this life-saving surgery the infant could have died.

Today, several weeks after the operation, the infant is doing very well and is breathing on her own. This operation has only been performed a handful of times in medical centers around the world and this was the first time the surgery was performed in Israel.