Netanyahu Released from Hospital after Reportedly being Fitted with Heart Monitor

The initial assessment of the emergency room was that the prime minister was suffering from dehydration.

By United with Israel Staff and JNS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital on Sunday afternoon.

The prime minister was kept at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan overnight Saturday for observation after being admitted to the emergency department earlier in the day. The Prime Minister’s Office said that, according to the initial assessment in the emergency room, Netanyahu was said to be suffering from dehydration, according to Ynet.

The weekly Cabinet meeting, which usually takes place on Sunday mornings, was accordingly postponed to Monday.

According to a Sunday morning statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reported by Ynet, “this morning, Prime Minister Netanyahu continued to undergo tests at the Sheba Medical Center. The tests are normal, his condition is very good and he is expected to be released later today.”

The 73-year-old briefly lost consciousness in his private home in Caesarea and subsequently smacked his head on the floor before checking himself into the emergency room, according to JNS.

His personal physician, Dr. Zvi Berkowitz, rushed to Sheba Medical Center to tend to the premier. The doctor described the prime minister’s condition as “good and stable.”

Following his arrival at the hospital, Netanyahu reportedly underwent a brain imaging procedure to rule out brain damage as a result of the fall, in addition to an examination by a cardiologist.

According to Ynet, Netanyahu underwent a cardiac catheterization, and a monitoring device that tracks heart rate activity was implanted in his heart.

As reported by CNN, Dr. Amit Segev, head of the cardiology unit at Sheba, said in a statement, “In order to continue routine monitoring, we decided to use a subcutaneous Holter, as is customary, to allow the close medical professional team of the Prime Minister to continue regular monitoring.”

Professor Yehuda Adler, director of health professions at Sheba, told Ynet that the monitoring device is an “implantable loop recorder” (ILR) and tests for arrhythmias.

“We must rule out serious conduction disturbances in the heart, so they did the catheterization test for him,” he explained. “The whole dilemma here was whether it was just dehydration or if there is a heart rhythm problem here, and I think that at Sheba Hospital they did an outstanding job.”

In a video shared on social media after the end of Shabbat, the prime minister clarified: “Yesterday I spent some time at the Sea of Galilee with my wife, in the sun, without a hat and without water. Not a good idea.”

“Thank God, I’m feeling very good,” continued Netanyahu, while urging the public to “spend less time in the sun [and] drink more water.”

In recent days, Israel has been experiencing a scorching heat wave, with temperatures reaching as high as 38° (100°F) in the South.

In October, Netanyahu spent a night at the hospital under medical observation due to chest pains that began while he was attending Yom Kippur synagogue services. Medical tests all came back normal, Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said at the time.