Three families whose lives were intertwined by organ transplantation, met recently at Hadassah. Seven years ago, Dan-El Gugenheim (27) was severely injured in a car accident and was taken to Hadassah. After a few days of fighting for life, he died and his family agreed to donate his organs. "It was like thunder on a sunny day", said Yaacov his father. "We were all in agreement and did what we had to do".
Three families whose lives were intertwined by organ transplantation, met recently at Hadassah. Seven years ago, Dan-El Gugenheim (27) was severely injured in a car accident and was taken to Hadassah. After a few days of fighting for life, he died and his family agreed to donate his organs. "It was like thunder on a sunny day", said Yaacov his father. "We were all in agreement and did what we had to do".
Gilad's kidney was transplanted in the body of Muhamad Mahmud Ali (53) from Jerusalem, who had been waiting for the surgery for 7 years, and came to thank Gilad's family.
Shany, Gilad's sister told the participants in the moving reunion, that "one day after my brother went into Coma, my father, who was already living with a transplanted lung, received here at Hadassah a donation of a kidney from his brother Ephraim. It was clear to us that had Gilad been alive, he would have volunteer his organs. I feel as if we turned death in our family into something that saved life".
Kiril Gorozovsky, Hadassah nurse, organ transplantations coordinator spoke about the unusual situation, where a family that received organs' donations, turned into a donor family. "it is the most noble act one can think of", he said.