Mossad chief Dagan’s corneas give sight back to 2 Israelis

Two people have regained their eyesight after receiving the corneas of the late former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who died March 17 after a long battle with cancer.

Avraham Gian, 81, and an unnamed 70-year-old woman were the recipients of the corneas, the transparent layer that forms the front of the eye.

The operations were carried out at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital.

“I’m amazed to discover that the corneas of a hero of Israel like him were implanted in me,” Gian told Channel 10 Tuesday.

“We all owe this man, and now I most of all, because I can see because of him…. I hope to have my sight for years to come after many years of not being able to see a thing,” he said.

Gian’s wife Sarah told Channel 2, “Avraham is very pleased; his sight has returned after two very difficult years… It’s a different world for him.”

Deborah Sard, spokeswoman for Ichilov’s transplant center, said growing numbers of Israelis were signing commitments to donate organs after their deaths.

Dagan, a retired military general, served for 32 years as an Israel Defense Forces officer, reaching the rank of major general. He is credited with leading some of the IDF’s most daring missions, and served in the Six Day War, Yom Kippur War and First Lebanon War.