Three families save lives of 11 by donating organs

Within 24 hours, 11 people were given a new chance at life, Israel Transplant reports; required special coordination.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
organdonation311 (photo credit: Michael Ainsworth/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
organdonation311
(photo credit: Michael Ainsworth/Dallas Morning News/MCT)
Within 24 hours at the end of last week, 11 people were given a new chance at life after three families agreed that their loved ones’ organs be donated for transplant, Israel Transplant reported on Sunday.
Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center received two donations from people aged 65 and 68, who died after strokes. At Assaf Harofeh Medical Center in Tzrifin, a donation came from 39-year-old Eitan Davis of Yavneh, who suffered brain death from a complication of meningitis.
All three were holders of ADI/Israel Transplant donor cards.
Michal Lugasi, the transplant coordinator at Sourasky and Miri Leventhal, her counterpart at Assaf Harofeh, said that the families of the donors were all “noble people” who made the humane decision during the worst of tragedies. By carrying the card, they all willed life to desperate people, they said.
Israel Transplant coordinator Tamar Ashkenazi said that harvesting more than one donation in 24 hours requires special logistics in surgical theaters, blood centers, labs, intensive care units and more. Numerous medical teams are ready to remove the organs, preserve and transplant them immediately once permission is obtained. Israel Transplant chairman Prof. Rafael Beyar was also personally involved in the coordination effort, she said.
A 57-year-old man received a heart at the Rabin Medical Center- Beilinson Campus; the recipient had been due to receive a temporary artificial heart two days later. A 59-year-old woman received a lung and a 29- year-old man with cystic fibrosis received two lungs that saved his life.
A 56-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman received livers; a 61-yearold woman and a 64-yearold man each received a kidney.
At Sourasky, a 57-year-old man received a liver, while at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva, a six-year-old girl received a lobe of a liver.
Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem transplanted a kidney in a 33-year-old man. Rambam Medical Center in Haifa gave a 49-year-old man a kidney.