Amateur sportsman goes to donate kidney – and saves his own life
After passing all but the last medical tests, Yisrael Elyada assumed – as an active amateur athlete – that he had no problems and would proceed on to the surgery needed to remove the kidney.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHYISRAEL ELYADA from Katzrin recovers from a catheterization performed by Dr. Fabio Koznitz at Poriya Hospital in Tiberias.(photo credit: PORIYA HOSPITAL)
Sixty-one-year-old Katzrin resident Yisrael Elyada saved his own life by planning altruistically to donate one of his kidneys. When he went to Poriya Hospital in Tiberias for a heart echocardiography, which is mandatory for potential kidney donors, it was suddenly discovered that he was suffering from cardiovascular disease and could have a severe heart attack.“I told myself that’s the least I can do – to help people who need a kidney donation so they can live,” he said. After passing all but the last medical tests, he assumed – as an active amateur athlete – that he had no problems and would proceed on to the surgery needed to remove the kidney.But his family physician, Prof. Yaron Dagan, called him when he was on vacation in Jerusalem a week ago to come for an urgent CT heart examination. When the results of the test arrived, Dagan called him and told him to come for catheterization at Poriya immediately.Elyada was admitted to the cardiology department where Dr. Fabio Koznitz, director of the cardiovascular catheterization unit, saw him. “We received him for urgent hospitalization. On the same day, we performed a catheterization in which severe coronary disease was discovered in both arteries. In the same operation, we opened the blocked arteries and installed a stent.”The next day, the patient was already feeling in good health. He warmly thanked the hospital staffers for saving his live.“What is important to understand is that he didn’t suffer from problems or pain, He felt fine. If he did had not started the process of donating a kidney, he would not have been able to overcome the problem. Thanks to the good deed he wanted to do, the disease was discovered and we were able to treat it quickly and his life was saved! He was definitely in danger of a severe heart attack.”
