When Kalai Housam Tarif learned about Morsell Albelous, he underwent blood and other tests to determine if he would be a donor match for the child, who Tarif said reminded him of his own. After compatibility was established, the procedure took place at the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
According to an explanation by the University of Wisconsin-Madison health system website, the surgery to remove the portion of a donor's liver takes about five hours and the donor stays in the hospital for about seven days. Typically, the right lobe of the donor's liver is removed.
The liver is divided into a right and left lobe, allowing the surgeon to separate the liver into two distinct parts that can function independently, one of which was donated to the boy.
TPS reported that Tarif joined the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) in 2008 as a guard at Ketziot Prison in the South. He went on to take part in an officers course and study criminology. For the past year and a half, Tarif has commanded training programs for prison guards for the IPS.
The procedure was successful and the two families met right after. It turned out the family was Druze.
“I didn’t know the kid was Druze, and I certainly would have done it regardless of his ethnic background,” Tarif told TPS. “ I’m just happy it worked out. My act has a significant impact; I wanted to save a life.”