New software to help increase kidney matches for transplants
"Since the transplant, my life has changed in every way,” Tzofit Ben Shau reflected after receiving a transplant with the help of Matnat Chaim.
By YVETTE J. DEANEUpdated: JANUARY 30, 2019 13:17Mr. Elio Moti Sonnenfeld who established the Danielle Sonnenfeld Foundation in memory of his daughter. (photo credit: Courtesy)
A new medical unit was announced last week to help match kidney donors to those in need of a transplant, in honor of Matnat Chaim's (translated as “gift of life”) 10th anniversary.The unit will use an advanced software program to facilitate finding kidney matches for those who suffer from high levels of antibodies, making the process of finding a new kidney difficult. The software will cross-check matches for those with high level of antibodies with all Israeli hospitals and hospitals around the world.Developed by Professor Itai Ashlagi of Harvard University, the software was made possible due to a donation of the Danielle Sonnenfeld Foundation, in the memory of Danielle Sonnenfeld, who was killed in a car accident at the age of 20 in 2015.The new unit will be called “Matnat Danielle” (“Danielle’s Gift”), named after Sonnenfeld."Since the transplant, my life has changed in every way,” Tzofit Ben Shau reflected after receiving a transplant with the help of Matnat Chaim, “Everything that is trivial and regular for healthy people is not obvious to me. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the Matnat Chaim organization and all the therapeutic staff at Beilinson who did everything for me but most of all, the donor who changed my life.”Ben Shaul, a 41-year-old from Rosh Ha'ayin, began the process of receiving a kidney transplant 20 years ago. He was not able to receive the transplant due to high levels of antibodies.After 30 years of receiving dialysis treatment, Ben Shaul successfully found a donor and underwent a transplant at Beilinson Hospital also known as the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva in mid-January.With the collaboration of the Beilinson Hospital, Matnat Chaim and the Danielle Sonnenfeld Foundation 39 transplants were completed at the Beilinson Hospital in the past year alone. The Danielle Sonnenfeld Foundation aims to fund initiatives that promote charity, health, medicine, education, social welfare, and other related causes and was established by Mr. Elio Moti Sonnenfeld.
