A kidney transplant at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah connected an altruistic donor and his recipient through an unexpected link to a deadly terrorist attack from more than two decades earlier.
Yonatan Rom, who survived a 2002 terrorist attack on the Otzem Pre-Military Preparatory School in Atzmona, a moshav in Gush Katif in the southern Gaza Strip, became an anonymous altruistic kidney donor through Israel's paired kidney exchange program. Though Rom was not a direct match for his originally intended recipient, he chose to continue donating to a stranger.
Shortly before the transplant, Rom met his recipient for the first time and learned he was Reuven Tam, brother of Eyal Tam, the commander of Atzmona's emergency response squad. During the March 2002 attack - which occurred amid the Second Intifada when a Hamas terrorist infiltrated the pre-military academy - Eyal Tam's actions saved Rom's life. The attacker killed five students and wounded 23 others before Tam fatally shot him.
"I want to thank Yonatan for giving me a new chance at life," Reuven Tam said after the transplant. "We hope to remain friends for the rest of our lives."
Rom said he only discovered the connection when meeting his recipient. "None of this was planned," He said, explaining that Reuven told him he was Eyal's brother and that they began discussing their shared experience during the attack. Rom described how the terrorist opened fire on his car before Eyal arrived and stopped the attacker.
Rom thanked the hospital staff and Matnat Chaim kidney donation organization for enabling the transplant.
Dr. Eviatar Nesher, director of the Transplant Department, noted that altruistic kidney donors "truly embody the meaning of altruism" By saving lives of strangers. "About half of all kidney transplants performed in Israel take place at Beilinson Hospital," He said, adding that while each donation has its own moving story, "the story of Reuven and Yonatan is exceptionally rare. It is an almost unbelievable full circle."
Anat Briger, the hospital's transplant coordinator, described the coincidence as stunning. "Yonatan could have been matched with many other recipients. What are the chances that, out of all the donors and recipients, these two people would be brought together?"