Small intestine of boy who died of flu donated to 36-year-old in rare transplant

Reporter at The Times of Israel

Dr. Eviatar Nesher, right, with Daniel Haim Biton at Rabin Medical Center. In an organ transplant, Biton received the small intestine of a six-year-old who died of the flu on December 3, 2025. (Courtesy Rabin Medical Center)
Dr. Eviatar Nesher, right, with Daniel Haim Biton at Rabin Medical Center. In an organ transplant, Biton received the small intestine of a six-year-old who died of the flu on December 3, 2025. (Courtesy Rabin Medical Center)

The small intestine of a six-year-old who died of the flu yesterday was transplanted into Daniel Haim Biton, 36, at Rabin Medical Center (Beilinson), the hospital says.

The procedure was the third intestine transplant of its kind in Israel, says Dr. Eviatar Nesher, director of the hospital’s transplant department, who performed the surgery with other hospital staff. The transplant took about seven hours.

“This is one of the most complex and rare transplants, requiring precise coordination between many teams and high surgical skills,” says Nesher.

The boy’s parents chose to donate their son’s organs after his death, the hospital says.

Biton has lived for 17 years without a functioning digestive system and has been fed by a central venous catheter.

He says he now wants to fulfill his dream: to “eat like everyone else and become a chef.”

The boy, 6, who died of the flu on December 3, 2025, and whose intestine was transplanted the following day into Daniel Haim Biton. (Courtesy)

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