Three children receive life-saving organ donations

A few hours before a man was due to donate a lobe of his liver to his three-year-old nephew, Israel Transplant located a cadaver organ for the toddler, it was announced on Thursday.

The deceased donor also supplied kidneys to a four-year-old and a 15-year-old boy. All the operations were performed at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva.

It was a dramatic moment when the family members were told that the child, who suffered from a metabolic disorder that caused liver failure, would get a cadaver organ rather than part of a liver offered by his uncle. The operation was performed early on Wednesday, and on Thursday, the toddler was in stable condition at Schneider.

The two other children who received kidneys are recuperating and in stable condition.

Zinav, the mother of Shahab, the liver recipient, said that her brother agreed to give the lobe, but the transplant had been postponed several times because the child developed a fever. When the fever stopped and the transplant was scheduled, the uncle’s surgery to donate the lobe was canceled.

“I am very grateful to the wonderful family that donated the liver and send my sincere condolences,” she said.

The operations were all performed by the Schneider/Rabin Medical Center transplant team, including Prof. Eitan Mor, Dr. Michael Gurevitz, Dr. Sigal Eisner, Dr. Yvgeny Solomonov and others. Transplant surgeon Prof. Raymond Reading of St. Luke Hospital in Belgium also participated.

Schneider performs most organ transplant operations in children in the country. Since it was founded in 1991, the Clalit Health Services hospital has carried out over 400 transplants of hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys in babies, young children and teens with high success rates equal to those in the best centers in the world. It is only one of the few children’s hospitals in the world able to cope with several children’s organ transplants simultaneously.