Synchrony Medical’s LibAirty, developed in collaboration with Sheba pulmonologists, is an airway clearance system in clinical development designed to enable patients with chronic lung disease to receive high-quality respiratory therapy in the privacy of their homes. Recently, LibAirty helped save the life of Ayelet, a 38-year-old cystic fibrosis patient who traveled from Israel to the U.S., where she waited for six months to receive a dual organ transplant.
Suffering from cystic fibrosis since childhood, when Ayelet’s condition started to deteriorate dramatically, she was referred for a lung and liver transplant in the US. Throughout Ayelet’s life, a crucial part of her care routine was daily airway clearance, assisted by the same respiratory therapist during the five years leading up to the double transplant referral.
When the time came to travel, it was unclear how she would cope without ongoing treatment by her therapist while waiting for a matching donor in the US.
The risk was significant, as Ayelet had rapidly deteriorated in the past when timely airway clearance therapy wasn’t administered on time. Concerns were also raised due to a previous experience with another patient who had traveled abroad for a transplant and did not survive the waiting period.
In an effort to improve Ayelet’s chances of survival, she was given a prototype of the LibAirty Airway Clearance System, which employs a unique treatment approach based on similar techniques she had regularly performed with her respiratory therapist. Thankfully, the system functioned well, and the device enabled Ayelet to maintain her routine treatment, making it through the waiting period and undergoing the dual transplant successfully.
Ayelet’s story was presented at the 2022 North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference titled ‘A Novel Airway Clearance Device as a Bridge to Double Organ Transplantation,’ delivered by Dr. Moshe Ashkenazi, co-founder of Synchrony Medical and Deputy Director at Sheba’s Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital.
“Ayelet is alive and well today,” said Dr. Ashkenazi. “We are very proud to have been there for her when she needed this support the most and now know that LibAirty has the potential to help millions of patients who need airway clearance.”
