The corneas of an Israeli victim of terrorism were transplanted into patients on Sunday, Ichilov Hospital at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center announced on Monday.
Chen Amir, a 42-year-old municipal patrolman, was killed while preventing a larger terrorist attack in downtown Tel Aviv on Aug. 5.
The corneas were transplanted into an 81-year-old woman and a 75-year-old man.
The family donated Amir’s corneas and tissues. Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan said that these tissues will benefit about 50 patients. Chen and his wife, Vered, signed ADI organ donation cards
The terrorist, identified as 22-year-old Kamal Abu Bakr, a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, aroused the suspicion of Amir and his partner who approached him. Bakr fired at the guards with a handgun, critically wounded Amir. The other guard returned fire hitting Abu Bakr.
Amir, a father of three girls, was buried at Kibbutz Re’im in the Negev.
Israeli interest in organ donations rose sharply after the organs of Leah (Lucy) Dee were donated to five patients in April. The 48-year-old Dee was mortally wounded and her daughters Maya and Rina were killed in a Palestinian drive-by shooting in the northern Jordan Valley on April 7.
Leah’s husband, Rabbi Leo Dee, has been outspoken about the importance of donating organs.
Israelis were moved by an emotional encounter between the grieving Dee family and the grateful recipients. A similar meeting took place in June between the family of brothers Yagel and Hallel Yaniv and the recipients of their corneas.
The Yanivs were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Palestinian village of Huwara, outside Nablus (Shechem) in February.
There are not enough organs to meet the needs of patients who need liver, heart, lung, pancreas or kidney transplants, the National Transplant and Organ Donation Center said.
Of the 656 Israeli organ transplants in 2022, 326 came from living donors while 330 came from people who died, according to National Transplant Center figures.