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Among families of organ donors, much grief and little regret By Yuval Azoulay Tags: Israel, Haredi, organ donor She keeps in close touch with the departments specializing in internal organs, and the emergency care unit at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. Her phone sometimes rings during family celebrations and in the middle of the night. When that happens, she leaves her home in Tivon and makes her way to the hospital, well versed in the task at hand: to ask the families who have just received the news of a loved one's death to donate the organs for transplant. For about a decade Esti Katz, 60, has served as the coordinator of the National Center for Transplants at Rambam. Advertisement During the difficult moments she holds the hand of the bereaved mother whose son was killed in an accident, sheds tears with her, takes a deep breath and raises the loaded issue: Will she agree to have her son's organs used for transplant? This discussion is always held behind closed doors, with as many family members and close friends as possible. There is no table between them, they all sit in a circle, with Esti among them. Too much furniture will only make it harder to hold the hand of a son mourning the passing of his mother. "You need a great deal of patience, tolerance and being attentive," she says. Meetings of this sort can last half an hour or seven hours: "They ask me a lot of questions and I am always honest with them." She is often asked what she would do in their place. Then Esti pulls out her National Center for Transplants card. "They ask me many times about the implications of donating organs on the resurrection of the dead. I answer that if our God is so great and can give life, then the first who will receive it will be those who saved the lives of others." Like the other transplant donation coordinators, Esti is a nurse by training, having served as an emergency room nurse at Rambam, among other stints. She says that in recent years the public has become more aware of the importance of transplant donors. "If several years ago I went to visit a bereaved family, they would be shocked by the timing of my visit, but now families understand more and are less surprised by my request," she says. A memorial to loved ones "Beyond saving lives by donating organs, the people see the contribution as a memorial. It is a powerful and important factor for bereaved families. There are family members who agreed to donate organs of their loved ones who tell me that this way they allow a part of their beloved to continue living instead of being destroyed in the ground." A day after the family agrees to contribute organs, Esti says their most urgent question is whether everything of use was taken. "It is very important for them for us to take as much as possible. If we could not take an organ for one or another reason, they are disappointed. In all the cases I dealt with in the past 10 years, no family expressed regret after they agreed to contribute organs." But she also mentions the other extreme of the spectrum. The family of a man who died consulted their rabbi in the U.S. on whether they should contribute his organs. The rabbi permitted the donation as long as the person receiving the organs was a Jew. "That same moment we stopped the process. There are no conditions to the contribution of organs because it becomes a downward spiral," she says. "I now hope that with the help of the new legislation that will make it possible to declare clinical death as death, the issue of organ donations will broaden." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Graphic footage Israel posts clips on YouTube of Jerusalem yeshiva terror attack. Remembering Gaza Knesset approves bill to commemorate the Jewish settlements of Gush Katif.

Today Online Israel posts clips on YouTube of Jerusalem yeshiva terror attack Responses: 46 Rights group: Deaths in IDF W. Bank raid were apparent executions Responses: 216 Top rabbis: Harvesting organs of the brain dead is `bloodshed` Responses: 64 Defense officials: Hezbollah rockets can reach almost all of Israel Responses: 205 More Headlines 01:57 Hamas smuggles Iranian blueprints into Strip for Qassam upgrades 22:43 Arab FMs re-endorse 2002 Saudi peace initiative 01:15 Rice will discuss final-status talks during Mideast visit 01:30 Dutch MP's anti-Islam film highlights anti-Jewish preaching 01:50 Bulgaria accepts blame for deaths of 11,000 Jews in Shoah 01:29 Lieberman stripped of attorney-client privilege in bribery probe 21:10 Ex-High Court chief: State must bring all Ethiopian Jews to Israel 01:37 Israeli ties to win top prize in prestigious Rubinstein competition 17:40 Defense officials: Hezbollah rockets can reach almost all of Israel 23:08 Druze colonel appointed to be president's next military secretary 14:20 Egypt holds new talks with Hamas, Jihad over truce with Israel 20:29 Treasury official: Economically, Israel is a bi-national state 00:31 Tel Aviv goes dark as part of global 'Earth Hour' campaign Previous Editions Select Day 27 mar 26 mar 25 mar 24 mar 23 mar 21 mar 20 mar 19 mar 18 mar 17 mar 16 mar 14 mar

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