When teacher Yonatan Rom somehow survived a Hamas massacre in which five students died and 21 were injured he thought he would never be able to repay his debt to the man who saved his life.
But 24 years later, thanks to an incredible twist of fate, he has managed to do exactly that by donating a kidney to his saviour’s brother.
Yonatan bravely drove to the scene where a Hamas gunman was unleashing volleys of bullets at a pre-military academy in the Israeli community of Atzmona in the Gaza Strip.
A soon as the terrorist saw him he opened fire at his car, but within minutes the local emergency response team commander, Eyal Tam, neutralised the terrorist and ended the killing, saving the lives of many people, including Yonatan.
This year Yonatan decided to become a kidney donor, giving an organ to a recipient he had never met through the not-for-profit Matnat Chaim organisation.
Just ahead of the operation at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital, which carries out half the transplants in Israel, Yanatan met his intended recipient, Reuven Tam, and – unbelievably – discovered that Reuven’s brother was Eyal Tam.
“Yonatan looked at Reuven and said, ‘Your brother saved my life 24 years ago, and I am saving yours today with my kidney,’” Anat Briger, transplant coordinator at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital said.
“Everyone who hears this story gets chills.
“We perform many kidney transplants, and Yonatan could have been matched with many other recipients. What are the chances?
“Out of all the donors and recipients, these two people were brought together, the recipient whose brother had once saved the donor’s life during a terrorist attack?”
“Altruistic kidney donors make an extraordinary decision to save the life of someone they have never met,” Dr. Eviatar Nesher, director of the transplant department at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital, said.
“Among all the donors and all the patients waiting for a kidney, these were the two people who ended up being connected.
“The story of Reuven and Yonatan is exceptionally rare. It is an almost unbelievable full circle.”
“I want to thank Yonatan for giving me a new chance at life,” Reuven said in an emotional interview on Israeli Channel 12 after the operation. “We hope to remain friends for the rest of our lives.”
According to Matnat Chaim, Israel leads the world in living kidney donations per capita.
To date, 2,030 living kidney transplants have been carried out in Israel through the organisation.
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