The heart of Ron, a 15-year-old boy, injured by chemotherapy, was forced to use an artificial heart. "And probably Sharon was really waiting for his heart"
Since receiving Yagel's heart he has been training, doing tension raises.
Ron Geva, this week
Photo:
Efrat Eshel
"Thank you Ron, for keeping us on Yagel's heart."
Aviva Yosef is sitting in the living room of her house, arranging the handkerchief on her head.
She has a gentle smile and a pleasant face, and when she thanks Ron Geva, who received the heart of her son, Yagel, the tears choke her throat.
Yagel was 15 and eight months old when he was swept away in a whirlpool at sea.
He was taken out of the water after long minutes in which no oxygen reached his brain, and has not regained consciousness since.
After a week at Rambam Hospital, Aviva and her husband Shmuel made a heroic decision to donate his organs. Four people's lives changed thanks to them: one kidney of Yagel was transplanted in a 16-year-old boy, the other kidney and liver were transplanted in a 25-year-old man, the lungs were transplanted in a 58-year-old woman. Found at Ron's.
Ron suffered from a cancerous growth in his leg, and the previous chemotherapy treatments hit his heart, until he needed a transplant.
For a year and a half it was connected to an artificial heart, a tiny pump implanted in its body and attached to batteries, which it carried in a small bag on its back.
He was prevented from bathing in the sea, which he loved so much, and even from a complete shower, because contact with water could affect the activity of the device.
But for the past seven months, since receiving Yagel's heart, Ron has enjoyed every shower again.
He exercises, started lifting weights and doing tension raises.
Now he is sitting in front of Aviva on the zoom screen, he is in Eilat and she is in Migdal Haemek, thanking her without words for the life she has given him.
A quiet, shy boy who lets his mother with me complete the answers.
Were it not for the distance and limitations of the corona, from which it must be specially guarded, they would have met face to face.
But the special encounter in Zoom allows them to see each other without masks, revealing Aviva's big smile and Ron's embarrassed smile.
"I would very much like us to meet, that you could put your hand on Ron's chest and feel Yagel's heart beating," Etty says to Aviva, placing a hand on her son's chest.
"It's so exciting to feel the heart running. Talent was connected to the artificial heart. He had no pulse, because the pump flows the blood regularly, not in beats. Now he has a pulse again."
Aviva is interested in Ron's well-being and asks if he has returned to school, and if he can go back to doing sports.
Ron, with a shy smile, recounts that this week he got approved to train a bit.
"I can not run, but can do walking, lift weights a little."
He will then tell her that he is studying in the Ministry of Education's Kadima Science program, designed for sick students who cannot get into the education system, and Mother Etty will add that they are looking for a mentor for him, so that he can complete his matriculation.
"What is it like to complete some matriculation, after what you went through," Aviva encourages him, and says that her Yagel also received a set of weights as a gift in honor of the end of the previous school year.
"He wanted to train so badly, but didn't have time to use them. At least you'll start lifting weights."
Two mothers, at different ends of the country.
It is doubtful if they would have met if reality had not struck them.
But today one heart unites between them.
"A person who ends his life in a way that he can continue living even later, when he is not here, has received a right from God," says Aviva. "And we - as brothers, as children, as parents - can not deprive him of this right, to contribute and change the life of Someone else.
This is not greatness, and I do not seek gratitude.
"I know that when I sat by the bed of my beloved and perfect child, it was clear to me that I would do everything so that another mother would not feel this pain. To make such a contribution, it is first and foremost to revive Yagel. Both physically, because his organs give life to the donors, and in terms The essence of Yagel, because he was the one who constantly gives to others. "
"We thought we were getting back to routine"
Each of them discovered the other's identity after applying to the National Transplant Center and asking to meet, five months after the donation.
They both admit that at first they had concerns.
"From the day we were informed that there was a heart, we were with mixed feelings," says Etty Laviva.
"I knew there was a family that lost its child, while we got a life. I did not know what to say, I just wanted to see and embrace. Today when we talk, I see that there is an immediate connection between us."
"You were in my heart from the first moment of the transplant, even before I knew who you were," Aviva answers her.
"At first I thought the referral should come from you, and only when I talked to the National Transplant Center did I realize it was up to me too. In retrospect, the past time was right for me. There is a process a person has to go through with themselves mentally to be mature to meet the other side."
A few days before the exciting conversation, Ron arrives for an examination in the cardiology department at Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva.
He gives one hand to his mother and the other hand to his father, trying to jump down the stairs.
The heart is already under load, but the body is still weak, and it carries a slight limp in its right leg, remnants of the surgery it underwent to remove the tumor, even before its heart failed.
The family has been torn apart for three years.
Brother Itai (10) and sister Yarin (19) remained in Eilat throughout the period;
In the past year, Yarin enlisted in the IDF, and she serves at the navy base in the city. Father Erez (45), a land controller in Arkia, stays with them and comes to the center intermittently, to be with Ron. Mother Etty (43), human resources coordinator at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Eilat, clings White throughout the treatment period and was shaken with him between hospitals. Sometimes she still managed to do her work from a distance. Her nails are painted red: on the ring finger on the left hand is a heart painted, and on the ring finger on the right hand a sign of rising pulse. "It has already become a symbol for us, the mark of The pulse, "she laughs.
Now that talent has gotten his life back on track, Etty allows herself to laugh.
But the last two and a half years have been tough.
Just before his bar mitzvah, which he planned to celebrate on a cruise with friends in the Red Sea and on a family vacation in Barcelona, he began to feel severe leg pain.
Examinations at Yoseftal Hospital revealed a 6-inch tumor of the osteosarcoma type - a malignant tumor in the bones.
After consulting a doctor from Rambam Hospital, it was decided to transfer Ron to the orthopedic-oncology unit in Haifa. "The doctors told us that we could undergo the chemotherapy treatments at a hospital of our choice, and we decided on Soroka.
We moved in with my family in Sderot.
Erez stayed with Itai and Yarin in Eilat, and on weekends they would come to Sderot. "
About two months after the start of the chemotherapy treatments, Ron underwent surgery to remove the tumor at Rambam.
After that he continued with chemotherapy for another six months.
He lifts the knee-length jeans, revealing a deep scar along the calf, where the bone has been replaced with titanium bone.
There is a dent left in the knee, which to this day makes it difficult to walk.
At the end of February 2019 he received the last chemotherapy treatment.
He smiles when he remembers the big bear and balloons he received from the "Bigger Than Life" organization, and the shaped cake with a crown on it, which his friends in Eilat brought him.
He finally returned home.
"We thought we were getting back to routine," says Etty.
"His hair grew back, he was able to meet friends, feel almost like a normal boy. But he was constantly tired. After a few days where his breathing was heavy and he felt weak, we went to Yoseftal Hospital. They did extensive tests, including lung function. "And blood tests, and everything was fine. We were advised to do more comprehensive tests in Soroka. The next day we went to Be'er Sheva, where they performed an echocardiogram."
"I sat crying, as usual"
Etty closes her eyes tightly, remembering how she almost collapsed when she heard that Ron's heart was not functioning.
One of the doctors brought him a wheelchair, informed him that it would be better for him to rest.
He was hospitalized for ten days in the Soroka Intensive Care Unit, unconscious and tired, with a small tube draining fluids that had accumulated in his body due to heart dysfunction.
After ten days he was taken by ambulance to the Schneider Intensive Care Unit.
"The doctors told us that it is very rare for them to deteriorate into such a situation so quickly," she says.
"They thought it was a side effect of the chemotherapy. When we passed it, he started crying, scared. I don't think he really understood what was going on. At Schneider they did a series of tests and gave him more heart medication and an artery infusion."
For two weeks, Ron lay in the intensive care unit, with his mother sleeping in the bed next to him, and his father coming from Eilat intermittently.
The doctors forbade him to get out of bed so as not to strain his heart.
They explained that if his heart collapsed, they would have to connect it to an artificial heart - a small pump that draws blood from the heart and pushes it into the aorta, thus supplying blood to the whole body.
After a few days, his heart collapsed.
He was immediately taken to the operating room.
The operation lasted seven hours, at the end of which he was transferred to intensive care.
Etty sat outside the room, not knowing her soul from worry.
"Ron was anesthetized, and I sat down to cry, as usual," she says quietly.
"I kept thinking how I would tell him, when he woke up, that he was now connected to a small device, without which he could not live.
" The day after the operation, in the evening, they started waking him up, and then I told him.
Probably because of the medication he did not really understand what was going on.
I asked him, 'How do you feel about being connected to an artificial heart?', And he replied, 'If that's what will save me, then fine.' "
The nerve-wracking wait
After two months of hospitalization, Ron was released from Schneider and moved with his mother to Beit Oranit, a support and assistance center for cancer patients at Ezer Mitzion in Petah Tikva.
They could not return home to Eilat because of the need to get a medical check-up several times a week.
"Only once did we manage to fly home for the weekend," laughs Etty.
"That was when one of his doctors went with the family on vacation in Eilat, and said it would be available for him if necessary."
Ron shudders as he recalls the artificial heart.
"It was hard to carry all the equipment that came with it. I would always go with a bag with two batteries the size of videotapes, and another controller, which is about half the size of a battery. Every few hours I had to check that everything was working properly and that the batteries were charged enough. The artificial one is constantly connected to the two batteries, and to charge them you have to switch to another battery or connect to electricity. At night I had to be connected directly to an electrical outlet.
"Whenever my heart rate rose - for example, if I got excited while playing on the computer - the device beeped to alert.
It bothered me that I could not go to the sea, or even shower properly.
It's a terrible feeling. "
On January 19, 2020, in the evening, nine months after Sharon was connected to the artificial heart, Etty's phone rang. The nurse at the Schneider Heart Institute was on the line.
" She told me: 'Pay attention to a donation that suits Ron, come to the hospital.' .
I told Ron to get organized quickly, because there might be a heart for him.
After all, until all the tests are done, both for Ron and Lev, it is impossible to know for sure.
He was very excited, and could barely speak.
Erez arrived on a flight from Eilat, we were all at the height of our excitement.
That same night, Ron entered the operating room. "
After an hour and a half of nerve-wracking waiting, the doctors left the operating room and informed Etty and Erez that even before they began the operation, it turned out that the donated heart was covered with a layer of fat that did not allow the transplant to take place.
"After they woke me up from the anesthesia, I was told the transplant was canceled," Ron recalled.
"I started crying, I was very angry. I realized I had to wait for another heart. It destroyed me. I did not understand why this was happening to me, why I was actually going through what I was going through."
"Yagel struggles with water"
Etty takes a deep breath.
"There is a terrible feeling in waiting for an organ that you can only get from a deceased person. Without meaning to, you hear about terrible accidents, and on the one hand pray that the victim will be fine, but on the other hand can not free yourself from the thought that it may be brain death.
For a year and four months, Ron waited for the heart.
"In the beginning, there were doctors who still gave little hope that his heart would return to itself, and be able to function without the device that was attached to it," says Etty.
"But they did a catheterization test, which showed that the heart was not back in action."
Ron kept waiting.
At that time the corona closure began, and morbidity figures in the center of the country were high.
Etty and Erez received permission from the doctors to return to Eilat, where there were low morbidity rates.
"I already knew how to operate everything I needed," she says.
"We finally got home."
"Home," she rolls the word in her mouth, and Ron returns after her.
He loves the house in Eilat.
The food Mom cooks, his computer and the gamers chair invested in, the air from the sea and the family and friends he missed most.
Last July he celebrated his 15th birthday. The parents invited home a private chef and some friends.
"We tried to make up for all this horrible time," Etty smiles.
"I told him that the gift I wanted for him was for his heart to return to function, and if that did not work out, that they would find him a new heart."
Talent celebrated in Eilat, Yagel is still enjoying his summer vacation.
Like Ron, he also loved football and loved the sea.
His father, Shmuel (46), is a teacher in the Ramat Hadassah youth village.
His mother, Aviva (41), accompanies and guides parents at "Optahim Atid", a subsidiary of the Jewish Agency.
They have been living in Migdal Haemek for eight years.
Yagel was a middle-aged man, just like Ron - the brother of Hila (19) and Geffen (13).
"He was a well-loved and talented boy, whose smile was unmistakable," says Aviva, smiling.
"He studied at the Tikva Yaakov yeshiva, the high school yeshiva in Moshav Sde Yaakov, as an external student. We always knew he was doing good, to everyone - to family, friends, even people he did not know. And not only was he looking to do good, the good was looking for him. To do good. "
Her eyes twinkle as she recounts one Sabbath he was on his way to the synagogue when an elderly woman asked him to accompany her home.
"He agreed, of course, took her hand and accompanied her home, and from there proceeded to the synagogue.
" Once, as we were driving to a performance at Hila's studio, Yagel came across a woman with a wheelchair-bound girl who could not get in.
He helped her lift her wheelchair and get in.
When he told me this, I told him: "You have such a big heart, and you love so much to help, that God gives you opportunities." And I feel that is what happened now. He received this right even in his death. "
On August 2, 2020, the family traveled to Maagan Michael Beach.
Yagel played with Matka and threw her into the sea, to run to the water and bring her back.
"The stick was swept away in the water, and when Eagle went in to pick it up, he got caught in a whirlpool. The whirlpool caught him and tossed him, and he could not return," she closes her eyes.
"He called 'Daddy', struggling with the water. While Samuel was entering, he felt the currents in the water and shouted at us 'Order an ambulance'. He managed to get Yagel out, but he was already unconscious. A passerby helped us and did CPR on him. MDA They arrived, and after long minutes they managed to get his pulse back.
It was after a long time that oxygen did not reach the brain.
"A week before the incident, Yagel told the children of relatives what to do if they get into a whirlpool. He knew what to do, but it's not really clear what happened to him at that moment."
Yagel goes to Rambam Hospital unconscious and was hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit, anesthetized and respirated.
"In the first days, there was still hope," says Aviva. "At least, I had hope.
Because you do not believe that such a thing will happen to your child.
Today I understand that there was no hope.
Everyone knows what happens when oxygen does not reach the brain.
"After a few days I realized there was no chance he would wake up. The doctors told us that Siegel was about to end his condition. We told the doctors we wanted to donate his organs. I know how important it is, my brother and sister-in-law donated a kidney. My sister served as a surrogate mother. We grew up on this giving.
"Shmuel should have heard that the rabbis encourage donations.
The members inquired and told him that many rabbis allow donations, and that there are also those who say that this is a huge virtue.
"What ultimately gave him the confirmation that this was the right thing to do was an 8-year-old girl we saw in the corridor at Rambam when she was connected to dialysis. At that moment, he understood the meaning of a person in need of an organ, and how much it could save his life."
Did you have time to say goodbye to Miguel?
"Yes. We stroked him, kissed him, sang to him, told him how much we loved him, and released him. The doctors at Rambam took him for a donation.
I was in pain, and sad, but it was important for me to know that his organs had been transplanted properly.
The next day, when the transplant coordinator called me and told me that the transplants had gone well, I calmed down a bit.
We saved lives. "
"The doctor said, 'Get going.'"
On August 9, at 12 noon, shortly after Yagel's parents agreed to donate his organs and the doctors at Rambam began performing suitability tests, Etty's phone rang. Dr. Ben Ben Avraham from the Beilinson Heart Failure Unit, who was treated by Baron, was on the line. In the past.
"He informed me that there was probably a heart suitable for Ron, and that we should get ready for Schneider for a transplant, although tests were still being done to make sure the heart was suitable. I was very excited, but did not allow myself to get too excited. Maybe it is not suitable again, as it was six months before.
" I called Erez and told him not to tell Ron anything yet.
I went home and quietly started arranging things.
At 2 o'clock the doctor called me again and said: 'With me, get going.'
In those words.
I called Lirin to come back from the army to take care of her little brother, and they allowed her to leave immediately. "
Ron was playing on the computer when his mother came into the room and told him to get organized, because they were going to the hospital." I did not understand what she wanted, "he smiles. "I feel good," and she looked at me and said, "There is a heart."
"The way she said it, I started crying. I was scared. I knew it might not happen again, like the last time."
"I told him there was no time to cry, that we would cry on the way," Etty puts a soft hand on his shoulder.
"We did not find a flight available, and we decided to go by car. We left Eilat at 3 in the afternoon, and by 7 in the evening we had already arrived at Schneider. We were on a crazy adrenaline rush. Erez and I called family and friends to tell us we had a heart, we were very excited.
" Him for surgery.
Before the anesthesia he was frightened.
He was afraid he would not wake up, asked what would happen to him if the surgery was not successful.
I told him that this was not the first time that the doctors had performed such an operation, and that he would wake up with a new heart.
He calmed down a bit.
We posed for pictures with him at the entrance to the operating room and sat down to wait outside.
"The morning is rising, you see people starting to get small catheterizations, the waiting room is filling up, and Ron is still in surgery. I was shaking non-stop, despite the heat. The nurse gave me a blanket because I was cold."
Ten hours later, Ron left the operating room.
"We calmed down when we saw him healthy and intact, but he was still anesthetized and respirated. At 9 in the evening we went to Oranit's house to rest a bit, we knew he would only be woken up the next day. At 5 in the morning I got a call from intensive care and panicked, he was still supposed to be anesthetized. Alone and tried to figure out what was going on with him.
"We immediately drove to him.
When we saw him awake, we were very excited.
He tried to speak but could not, for he was still connected to the soul.
I looked him in the eyes and said to him: 'Roni, everything is fine, the operation was successful.
You have a new heart.
No more device '.
I spoke, and tears welled up in my eyes.
"At 8 in the morning he was taken off his soul, and he began to ask questions. He wanted to know what day it was, he did not know at all how long it had been.
Etty remembers how she packed the artificial heart and the accompanying equipment in a large suitcase, and went to return the device to the clinic.
"I laughed with everyone here. I'm going to be heartbroken."
Dr. Amichai Rothstein, a senior physician at the Schneider Heart Institute, who accompanied Ron all the way, says the side effect he suffered from in his heart is uncommon in children.
We accompanied him all the way to the transplant of the artificial heart, and then throughout the waiting period.
I was very excited when the heart arrived, and when the operation was successful and Ron said goodbye to the artificial heart. "
After ten days at Schneider Hospital, Ron was released from the hospital. He returned home to Eilat in November, and despite the winter, and the closure, he would go on tours around his house, and even went sailing in a small boat of friends - enjoying the knowledge that he was no longer dependent on machines or doctors.
"Special connection"
Etty discovered similarities between her son and Yagel.
The gem on the side of the face, the slightly brown skin color, the love for the sea.
"There's even a picture of Yagel where he's wearing a white shirt with a stripe on the side, and Ron has a similar shirt," she says, and Aviva closes her eyes longingly.
Every Friday she visits Yagel in the cemetery, with Shmuel and their two children.
"On the tombstone of Yagel appears the symbol of Eddie (Association for the Advancement of Transplants in Israel). I say to him: 'Yagel, saving lives' because we have chosen life, and we continue Yagel's giving and spirit by projects that contribute to the community. This is our natural way to side The pain, which has become a permanent tenant. "
"Organ donation provides meaning to the families of the donors," says Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the National Transplant Center. "It provides shards of relief and comfort in the chaos of pain and grief.
A bereaved parent once told me that donating organs for him is like an ointment to relieve the pain.
"" There is no doubt Sharon received the biggest heart in the world, "Aviva clasps her hands together and turns to me." I kept praying that the organs would be well preserved so we could donate and save them. Haim.
When you told Sharon he had already undergone surgery and the heart was not good enough for him, I realized that there is something much bigger than us that makes all these connections.
Probably Ron was really waiting for Yagel's heart, or Shigel was waiting to give him the heart. "
Etty:" We feel that this connection is so special, and we know Sharon will take care of himself, and will keep Yagel's heart.
It is said that after 30 years the transplanted organ needs to be replaced.
We pray that science will advance and Sharon will not have to replace this heart, because it is a special heart, designed just for him. "
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