Four saved by donated organs from Israeli boy killed in hiking tragedy
Jewish law regards saving one life as saving a whole world and as providing consolation to those who have lost loved ones.
By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICHUpdated: DECEMBER 12, 2016 23:40Almog Grabli, heart recipient, at Schneider Medical Center(photo credit: SCHNEIDER CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER)
The family of Ilai Nir, the 11-year-old boy who died in a fall in Nahal Tze’elim with his father, who died trying to save him, donated his organs on Monday to save four children.Schneider Children’s Medical Center for Israel in Petah Tikva performed the transplants in 24 hours. The donations were made possible by the fact that the roll down the rocky hill rendered him brain dead, but left his internal organs intact.A heart was transplanted into an eight-year-old boy by Dr. Gabi Amir, a senior Schneider cardiothoracic surgeon, and Prof. Dan Aravot, head of the cardiothoracic surgery department at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. A liver transplant was performed by Dr. Michael Gurevich and Dr. Sigal Eisner, senior doctors in Schneider’s transplant department.Kidney transplants were being carried out in two other children.Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, head of the ethics unit in the Tzohar rabbinical organization and chairman of the ethics committee that advises the Health Ministry’s National Transplant Center, said that it was extremely moving and noble for the Nir family to donate Elai’s organs to save lives after their horrifying tragedy.Jewish law regards saving one life as saving a whole world and as providing consolation to those who have lost loved ones. “Their example is a shining light to other families who might, God forbid, find themselves in the same situation,” Cherlow said.