Soldier’s family donates his corneas for transplant

The family of Corporal Yehoshua Hefetz, the 19-year-old IDF recruit from Jerusalem who collapsed and died during an elite army unit drill last Wednesday, has donated his corneas for transplant, his sister said on Tuesday.

“He always wanted to help people,” she said in an Israel Radio interview, “and we knew that this is what he would have wanted.”

IDF officials said they were unable to determine “with certainty” the cause of Hefetz’s death. The IDF Ground Forces command and the chief medical officer launched an investigation into possible causes and whether all procedures were adhered to during the drill. The family refused to allow an autopsy; his sister said they felt Hefetz should “be left in peace.”

Some military sources have suggested that Hefetz may have had a heart problem, but the family denied this on Tuesday. “There was nothing wrong with his heart,” said his mother. “And if there had been, it would have been negligence by the IDF to let him do the drill.”

Hefetz collapsed while running with his fellow recruits toward the end of a grueling four-day trial for entry into an elite IDF combat engineering unit, Yahalom, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office reported. Medics tried in vain to resuscitate Hefetz at the scene. He was evacuated to Yoseftal Hospital in Eilat, where he was pronounced dead.

The drill was located at an army base in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.

Hefetz was drafted last year as a cook in the air force, friends said, and had pressed repeatedly for a move into a combat unit. His father died two months ago, they said, and he refused to accept any of the easier terms of service for which he was eligible as a consequence.