Agam Ben-Old listed in good condition after $5 million operation in US.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHtransplant baby 298(photo credit: Courtesy)
Agam Ben-Old, a 13-month-old baby born with the rare genetic disease, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, is recovering at Holtz Children's Hospital in Florida from a six-organ transplant that saved her life.
Her liver and entire digestive system were irreversibly damaged by her condition, and a multivisceral transplant - a procedure never before performed in Israel on a child - was the only option.
Her parents were directed to Holtz by Dr. Baruch Yeyrushalmi of Beersheba's Soroka University Medical Center, who knew of a longstanding relationship between Israel's medical community and the Jackson Health System in Miami.
A few weeks ago, surgeons gave her a new stomach, large intestine, small intestinal, liver, pancreas and spleen from the body of a month-old American boy who died from a disease and whose parents decided to donate his organs.
Funding for the procedure was secured by Yeyrushalmi, the Dikla Insurance Company and donations in Israel and Miami.
The surgical team was headed by Dr. Andreas Tzakis, who accepted Agam as the first of 10 multivisceral transplant patients in a professional exchange between Jackson and Israel. Israeli surgeons will go to Holtz to learn the procedure.
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