Race against time: the complex transplant operation between Israel and Cyprus

At 05:00 in the morning, an operation to remove a kidney from a 50-year-old Israeli man, who requested to donate a kidney to his mother, began at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva. Despite his wish, the tests showed that it was not possible to perform the transplant between them. About two hours later, an operation to remove a kidney from a 58-year-old woman, who asked to donate to her husband, began at the Nicosia Hospital in Cyprus. In this case too, no medical compatibility was found between them.

At 09:00 the kidney took off from Israel to Cyprus in a dedicated cooler designed to preserve organs for transplantation. About an hour later, in a private lounge at the airport in Larnaca, the representatives of the two countries met and exchanged the coolers that carried the kidneys. At that time, the surgeries also continued in Israel. At Beilinson Hospital, a kidney was removed from a 57-year-old Israeli woman who asked to donate to her husband, but there was no match between them either. Her kidney was transplanted into the mother of the Israeli donor, while the kidney that came from Cyprus was transplanted into her husband.

At the same time, the kidney flown from Israel was transplanted by a Cypriot transplant. Thus, a chain of transplants was completed that included three pairs of donors and transplantees, in two different countries, in a coordination that lasted only a few hours.

The cross transplant program has been operating in Israel for years and is managed by the National Transplant Center. As part of the program, couples of donors and transplant recipients who have not been matched are registered, and a computerized system locates possible matches between different couples. In this way, it is possible to carry out transplant chains that make it possible to save lives even in cases that initially seemed to have no solution.

The cooperation between Israel and Cyprus has been going on for several years. All Cypriot couples for whom a match was not found are also registered in the Israeli crossbreeding database, which increases the number of possible matches and improves the patients’ chances of receiving a kidney transplant. Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the National Transplantation Center, said: “Technological progress today allows for medical cooperation between countries, but the cooperation with Cyprus is one of a kind. Beyond the geographical closeness, there is a personal, professional and human closeness between us, and in one word, family.”

And she added: “I call on the family members of kidney patients: even if you are told that there is no compatibility between you, do not give up. Your willingness to donate may save your loved one through the crossover program. We make such adjustments on an ongoing basis, and enable more and more patients to be freed from dialysis treatments and gain a new life.”