Rabbi Leo Dee and his three remaining children went from sorrow to smiles on Tuesday at a deeply touching meeting with the transplant recipients who were gifted with organs from the body of his murdered wife.
HEAR THE HEARTBEAT: The amazing meeting between the Dee family and the transplant recipients of Lucy's organs who was murdered in a Palestinian terrorist attack. pic.twitter.com/3PksUjw3Nb
— Hertfordshire Friends of Israel ???? (@HertfordshireI) May 2, 2023
Lucy Dee and two of her daughters – Rina and Maia – were murdered by a Palestinian Authority terrorist last month while traveling in the Jordan Valley.
The family decided to donate Lucy’s organs to four people, who as a result were gifted with a new lease on life at Beilinson (Rabin) Medical Center in Petach Tikvah.
On Tuesday, Rabbi Dee and his children Keren, Yehuda and Tali met with the transplant recipients and their families at the hospital, Kipa News reported.
Lital (Tal) Valencia, a mother of two sons, received Lucy’s heart. She was diagnosed several years ago with heart failure, but in recent months her condition deteriorated and the need for a transplant took on added urgency.
On Tuesday, using a stethoscope, Lucy’s daughters were able to hear the beating of their mother’s heart with the assistance of Professor Dan Aravat, head of the hospital’s Heart and Thoracic Surgery Unit.
“You will always be family to me,” Valencia told the family. “I have a part of you.”
In response, Rabbi Dee told her, “A part of Lucy lives in you; it’s strange. But as I have told people, our whole life now is strange.”
Moti Elkebats, a 58-year-old husband and father of four children waited for more than seven years for a kidney transplant. Thanks to the Dee family, he said, he now is able to walk freely, and his test results are clear. “I received the notification about the kidney donation on my birthday, he said. “In memory of Lucy, Rina and Maia, I donated a plaque in the synagogue, where I pray for their souls.” Elkebats invited the family to his home in the community of Shlomi.
A child named Daniel Geresh received a liver transplant from Lucy Dee. His mother, Maya, said she had “no words” to thank the family. “I want to focus on one thing,” she said. “Thank you for bringing the smile back to my son’s face.”
Rabbi Dee thanked the doctors for their hard work, telling them that without them, “nothing would have been possible.
“Blessed be He who performed a miracle for me in this place,” the rabbi went on.
“God has performed a miracle for us, that from our tragedy we could perform a miracle for others. The donation was a decision by the girls; they are the bosses today.”
