‘Like I’m with her’: Terror victim Lucy Dee’s family visits recipients of her organs
A month after Palestinian terrorists killed Dee and 2 of her daughters, widower and surviving children use stethoscope to listen to her heartbeat inside woman who got transplant
The family of an Israeli woman recently killed by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank met Tuesday with the recipients of organs she donated.
Lucy Dee, 48, and her daughters Maia Dee, 20, and Rina Dee, 15, were shot dead while driving through the northern Jordan Valley on April 7. The daughters were declared dead at the scene, while the mother was taken to a hospital in critical condition but died days later.
Shortly before she was buried, Dee’s organs were transplanted, saving the lives of five people.
At Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikva, her widower Rabbi Leo Dee and their three surviving children met with three of the people who received the transplants, including Lital Valenci, 51, who got Dee’s heart.
In video footage from the hospital, one of Dee’s daughters can be seen growing emotional as she uses a stethoscope to listen to the heartbeat inside Valenci, who had suffered from heart failure for five years prior to the transplant.
“Listening to my mother’s heartbeat made me feel like I am with her. It was moving meeting Lital and all the recipients. We have lost so much but are comforted that so many families were saved from similar pain,” Keren Dee was quoted as saying in a statement from the hospital.
“Nobody can understand what it is like losing a mother and two sisters at once and to hear my mother’s heartbeat was comforting,” her sister Tali added.
שמעו את פעימות הלב של אימן: המפגש המרגש בין משפחת די למושתלי האיברים של לוסי שנרצחה בפיגוע בבקעה@daniel_elazar pic.twitter.com/WWm3kKIjyo
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) May 2, 2023
Along with her heart, Dee donated her liver, both kidneys and lung, while her corneas were also harvested and will go to recipients at a later date.
The family met with Daniel Geresh, 25, who received the liver, and Mordechi Elkabetz, 51, who got one of the kidneys.
The hospital said Ahmed Suliman, who received her other kidney, was unable to attend but “sent a beautiful plaque with verses from the bible with a special tribute to Lucy Dee.”
Dee has said that he was proud that his wife’s organs could be used to help people, explaining that the reasoning behind the decisions involved both religious considerations and his wife having discussed organ donation with him in the past. The practice is considered by some Orthodox Jews to be forbidden by Jewish law.
“Our rabbinical authority had checked out the halachot [Jewish laws] and explained to me that in her condition, it was perfectly acceptable — actually a mitzvah [religious commandment]. Only the bones and tendons should not be donated, and everything else that is lifesaving should be given,” he previously told The Times of Israel.
The Dee family buried Lucy just two days after laying to rest daughters Maia and Rina, all three of whom were killed in the terror attack. The family, which immigrated from the UK nine years ago, holds dual citizenship.
The suspects, who Leo Dee said he has “no hatred” for, remain on the loose despite promises from officials that they will be found and brought to justice.
