Seven-year-old Jordanian boy saved by Israeli doctors

 


HAIFA—Suffering from acute kidney failure, 7-year-old “Y” needed a new kidney to survive. When the Jordanian boy’s parents learned that Rambam Health Care Campus had begun performing pediatric transplants—a procedure 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 second hospital in Israel and the only one in the country’s north to do pediatric transplants. The surgery is not available 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 examinations 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 life-saving 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 transplanted the kidney into “Y” in a second 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 surgery.

In addition, 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.

 

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