Israeli woman's kidney to be flown in for Abu Dhabi patient in private plane

Abu Dhabi - The three-hour operation at Sheba Medical Centre will be led by a staff of surgeons.

At 5am tomorrow, 39-year-old Shani Markowitz from Israel will undergo surgery to donate one of her kidneys to a patient in Abu Dhabi, while her mother will be admitted to a hospital in Israel for her own kidney transplant.

The three-hour operation at Sheba Medical Centre will be led by a staff of surgeons, anaesthetists, and nurses who will store the donated kidney and send it directly to the airport. The organ will be flown over to Abu Dhabi in a private plane and make its way to one of the Seha chain hospitals where it will meet its match.

Meanwhile, in Abu Dhabi, a similar procedure will have taken place ahead of the flight’s arrival. The private plane will then return to Israel with the donated kidney from a UAE donor. It will be sent to Rambam Hospital in Israel’s north and received by an Israeli patient.

The historic life-saving operation is a three-way kidney exchange and the first of its kind between the UAE and Israel. It will mark the start of many medical exchanges of this nature, all part of a wider organ donor programme that was established following the signing of the Abraham Accords.

The joint organ donation programme was months in the making: This week’s procedures follow numerous Zoom sessions between medical teams, as well as blood tests, imaging studies, X-rays, ultrasounds and transfer of all medical reports, to ensure the body won’t reject the donated organ.

michal@khaleejtimes.com