Police bring Orthodox man to hospital on Shabbat for kidney transplant

"Shabbat Shalom, sir, we are happy to inform you that a kidney is waiting for you to be transplanted in the hospital and you have to arrive in the operating room within an hour," said the officers.

Israel police car (Illustrative) (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israel police car (Illustrative)
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
In an unusual collaboration, the Israel Police rushed an ultra-Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh to the operating room at a central Israel hospital so that he could receive a long-awaited kidney transplant.
On Friday night, officers arrived at the man's door and greeted him with the words, "Shabbat Shalom, sir, we are happy to inform you that a kidney is waiting for you to be transplanted in the hospital and you have to arrive in the operating room within an hour."
The police officers located the address of the ultra-Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh, and he was rushed by the patrol car to the operating room.
This came after the wife of a police officer, who is responsible for transplants at the unnamed hospital had urgently tried to get ahold of the Beit Shemesh man to tell him the kidney was "waiting for him," but due to his observance of Shabbat, he did not answer the phone.
In a statement, the Israel Police said that the woman's husband - an officer, "immediately contacted a fellow police officer who was on duty at the Beit Shemesh police station, and because of the urgency he sent a car to the home of the person waiting for the transplant, who located him and informed him of the joyful news."
When the police realized that the man had no way to get to the hospital, they drove him in the police car in order to get him to the hospital for transplant surgery as fast as possible.
On Saturday night the Israel Police said, "Fortunately, we were informed a short while ago that the operation was successful and we wish him a speedy recovery."