Doctors at Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa perform a kidney
transplant on a 7-year-old Jordanian boy.
New Life
l i _ t t mo t gr'
1111mi '
Jordanian, 7, saved by Israeli doctors.
S
uffering from acute kidney
failure, a 7-year-old with
the initial "Y" needed a new
kidney to survive. When the Jordanian
boy's parents learned that Rambam
Health Care Campus had begun per-
forming pediatric transplants — a pro-
cedure not available in Jordan — they
contacted the hospital: "Please help us
by doing a kidney transplantation on
our son:' they asked the Haifa-based
hospital. That surgery took place just
days ago.
Rambam officials were surprised to
receive the request. The first pediatric
procedure at Rambam, which had
pioneered adult kidney transplants in
Israel, had taken place just a few weeks
earlier, making Rambam only the sec-
ond hospital in Israel and the only one
in the country's north to do pediatric
transplants. The surgery is not avail-
able at all in Jordan.
Due to the immediate danger to the
child's life, approvals were processed
quickly. "Y" came to Rambam shortly
before surgery for presurgical exami-
nations and tests. Tissue matches
determined his mother was a suitable
donor. Since he needed to undergo
daily dialysis, he stayed at Rambam
until the day of the surgery. Even
though his parents had seven other
children, both parents stayed with
"Y" to see him through this lifesaving
procedure.
On the day of surgery, his mother
underwent a three-hour procedure
performed by a multidisciplinary team
to remove one of her kidneys. Then a
second multidisciplinary team trans-
planted the kidney into "Y" in a sec-
ond three-hour procedure. Two days
later, "Y" and his mother reunited. "Y"
is now in a regular pediatric hospital
room becoming acclimated to his new
life, no longer dependent on machines
to stay alive. Soon he and his parents
will return to Jordan.
Currently, Rambam is caring for
21 children in critical kidney failure
and requiring dialysis. Most of these
children will eventually need kidney
transplantation. Since Rambam began
offering this procedure, it has been
receiving requests on a daily basis
from surrounding nations for the sur-
gery.
In the past year, 600 children and
adults from the Palestinian Authority
have come to Rambam for a variety of
simple to complex medical problems.
It may be beautiful on the
outside but it's what's on the
inside that counts
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March 27 • 2014
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