Haifa hospital saves life of boy from Gaza suffering from kidney failure
"I would have given him my soul, my eyes, and that I should die so that he could live — anything to stop his suffering," said Sumar Tapash, Madchat's mother, who donated a kidney to help her son live
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFRambam health care campus. (photo credit: MIKI AND GAL KOREN)
Doctors at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa recently saved the life of a seven-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip through lifesaving surgery, the hospital announced in a statement.The boy, Madchat Tapash, was born with a medical defect that causes life-threatening kidney and bladder failure, resulting in the need for surgical intervention.Three different surgeries, which were performed "almost simultaneously," ended up saving Tapash's life, according to the hospital. The boy's bladder was reconstructed and his mother donated a kidney."I would have given him my soul, my eyes, and that I should die so that he could live – anything to stop his suffering," said Madchat's mother Sumar.Madchat had been undergoing dialysis treatment before arriving at the hospital in poor condition. He had previously undergone 15 surgeries and dozens of other procedures during his seven years of life.His bladder was reconstructed and enlarged using the boy's ureters, which are muscular tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder, the hospital said.During that surgery, the surgeons also extracted a healthy kidney from his mother, and in the final surgery it was connected to the boy's reconstructed bladder. The kidney began functioning properly shortly after the attachment."It is wonderful to give a part of your body to heal your child. You feel the closeness – it is as if we were one body." said Dr. Ran Steinberg, Director of the Department of Pediatric Surgery."An operation of this magnitude required the participation and coordination of dozens of people, and multiple hospital departments. Without intensive, advance preparation and great motivation to succeed, it would have been extremely difficult to carry out this extraordinary undertaking," he explained.
