For the first time, a live organ donor in Israel has provided two organs for transplantation. A 47-year-old resident of the Galilee village of Iblin, Hasnin Atta, provided both a kidney and a portion of his liver to his 19-year-old son.
A lobe of the father’s liver was transplanted in the son about six months ago at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. The liver transplant surgery was performed Tuesday at the same hospital. There are few reports of live organ donors giving two organs anywhere in the world.
Donation of both organs for transplant provided the only available solution to the son’s medical condition, which was caused by a genetic disease affecting his metabolism. As the father’s surgery for the removing his kidney and a lobe of his liver were performed six months apart, it enabled him to recuperate between operations.
“Up to now, patients with this illness who needed two organs received organ donations from deceased donors,” said Beilinson Hospital transplant unit director Eytan Mor. “I hope,” he added, “that the noble act of the father will help advance the field of transplantation from live donors.” The father’s donation of both organs, Mor explained, “has a substantial advantage for the recipient, because a liver and kidney transplanted from the same donor are accepted more readily by the recipient’s body.”
Beilinson Hospital reports that, following Tuesday’s kidney transplant, father and son, who are both in the hospital’s transplant unit, are in stable condition.
{Haaretz News Servi9ces/Yair Alpert-Matzav.com Israel}
