Livneh. Saved four lives.
81-year-old woman’s organs donated
In an Israeli first, the organs of octogenarian Lea Livneh were donated and saved the lives of four. Livneh’s family said the donation was part of her legacy of helping others.
The family of Lea Livneh, an 81-year-old Israeli woman who recently and suddenly passed away due to a brain ailment, decided to donate her organs. Livneh this became Israel’s oldest organ donor, saving four other patients in the process.
Livneh, a resident of kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, was a generally healthy woman who had an active lifestyle. She worked as a painter and a teacher at an ulpan where immigrants learn Hebrew. “She was healthy, looked younger than her age, and kept a healthy lifestyle,” Livneh’s daughter, Lilach Shahaf, said.
Lea Livneh. Israel's oldest organ donor.
About two weeks ago, Livneh suffered a brain hemorrhage. She was rushed to the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa, where doctors tried to revive her for four days, but she eventually passed away.
“The family sees great importance in organ donation,” Livneh’s daughter said, “and we thought it was part of mom’s legacy, who not only kept a healthy lifestyle, but also always dealt with helping others, something she spoke of all her life – how it was important to do. We are proud that we could have helped others in some way, out of our harsh tragedy.”
Livneh’s two lungs, liver, and two kidneys were implanted in four patients who were in critical condition, and are now stable.
“This transplant shows us that a lung can be donated at any age, if the donor did not suffer from lung disease, didn’t smoke in the past, and (if) their lungs are exemplary,” said Professor Mordechai Kamer, head of the Institute for Pulmonary Medicine at Beilinson Hospital, “There’s no age limit. The lungs can function up to 120 years, and save patients who would have otherwise died waiting on the (transplant) list.”
