Mother Ummah places a hand on the heart of Ahmad Mahmoud Ali.
"Take care of your new heart," she tells her 4-year-old son, who runs around the entrance to the Schneider Pediatric Center and keeps smiling.
Livi Giladi (3) looks at him and laughs.
The last time they both played like this they were connected to the Berlin Heart device - an external heart that replaces the action of the heart.
Now, after they both had heart transplants three months apart, they are free of wires and devices, and can play without interference.
I met them four months ago for the purpose of preparing an article published in "Shishab" ("The heart goes out to them", 26.08.2022).
In their shared photo they were both seen laughing, each connected by tubes to a terrifying machine on which their lives depended.
A week after the publication of the article, on September 2, my heart underwent a heart transplant.
On November 14, Ahmed also received a heart donation, and both are slowly coming back to life.
Treated with anti-rejection drugs, come almost every week for tests of the new heart.
And at the end of each treatment, if the test results are good, they finally return home.
The mothers, Bella and Umma, also laugh together.
"We strengthened each other throughout the hospitalization. The children were friends through hardship, and now, after the transplants, it's a very exciting closing of the circle," Bella smiles.
A month ago, Bella came with Libby to the Schneider tests and met Umma there.
"I saw her sitting frustrated, asking when she would get a heart, shouting to the sky," Bella remembers.
"I choked with tears. I am the only mother who can understand the pain she is going through, because I know what it is like when your child's life depends on an electronic device. I was also at the bottom, and a day later my heart reached my heart. And that is what I told Umma, that when you feel that water has reached Nefesh - good things can happen."
A day later, on November 13, at 8:00 p.m., Ummah and her desperate husband were informed that Ahmed's heart had arrived.
"I couldn't believe it," Father Khaled recalled.
"To this day, I can't believe that Ahmed is at home with us after the operation. The doctor told us that he had a heart and took me by the hand. He told me: 'Sign the authorizations, and let's go - Ahmed is being prepared for surgery.'
"Ahmed didn't believe it either. We always told him that we were waiting for a new heart, that Berlin Heart is just a temporary friend who helps him. But when it came time to go down to the operating room, because he has a heart, he started crying, shaking, really scared. And this is a boy who has undergone quite a few surgeries In the heart. We told him that he is allowed to be afraid, but let him know that he will not feel anything, he will go to sleep and the doctor will do his job."
All that night Umma and Khaled sat outside the operating room, crying and praying for the safety of their son.
About three hours after entering the operating room, the heart arrived for transplantation.
At seven thirty in the morning, on Monday, the parents were informed that the surgery was over and that Ahmed was in good condition.
The heart is working.
"It's impossible to describe in words how excited we were," Umma can't stop smiling.
"Ahmed woke up in intensive care and didn't ask anything about the surgery. We tried to talk to him, to explain to him, but he seemed to ignore it and tried to change the subject. He was really crying and shouting that he didn't want to talk. He probably had to digest things in his own way, because only after five days he came And asked me, 'Mom, where did my boyfriend go, Berlin? What, now I'm heartless?'
"I explained to him that he had undergone surgery, that he had a new heart in his body, not a machine, and I spoke as if with the new heart in his chest. I told him that he was in a new apartment and that he would get organized. Ahmed was hospitalized for nine months and received a new heart, like a birth. It was an experience with a variety of emotions: fear , worry, excitement, all together. Until he is reborn."
Ahmed's heart came after the family of a 7-year-old boy, who was killed in a car accident, made a noble decision to donate his organs, and Schneider had his liver, kidneys and heart transplanted.
The heart transplant was performed by Dr. Gabi Amir, senior heart surgeon and director of the cardiac surgery unit at Schneider, and Prof. Dan Arabot, director of the cardiac and thoracic surgery unit at Bilinson. After the transplant, Ahmed was transferred to cardiac intensive care led by Prof. Ovadi Dagan.
"We pray for the parents of the boy who was killed and his family," Umma says quietly.
"God took something really precious from them, and I'm sad for them. But it's important that they know that the special act they did gives Ahmed and other children a new life. The topic of organ donation needs to be raised more, so that people know how much life it gives."
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