92-year-old Holocaust survivor became oldest organ donor in Israel

Michael Volgon, a 92-year-old Holocaust survivor, became Israel’s oldest organ donor on Sunday, saving the lives of three people, according to a statement by the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa.

According to the statement, he died of a brain hemorrhage.

Two of his kidneys were placed in two different 74-year-olds, while his liver was placed in a 75-year-old woman.

“With the increase in awareness of healthy nutrition and exercise, people’s biological age is younger than their chronological age, which allowed us to raise the age of organ donors, depending on the organ.” Said Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, head of the National Transplant Center.

“Having a liver transplant from an older individual is indeed a challenge, which required an experienced team of surgeons, even more than usual transplants.” Said Dr. Abed Khlaila, who performed the transplant alongside Dr. Ashraf Imam and Dr. Oded Arazi.

Volgon was born in April 1929 and was the only surviving member of his immediate family from the Holocaust – losing two brothers and a sister, as well as most of the rest of his family. He only survived because his father managed to smuggle him into the woods by making a hole in a barbed-wire fence, where he was rescued by a Ukrainian family, according to his granddaughter.

He lived in Ukraine following the war where he worked as a veterinarian. He met his wife there and they moved to Israel; she died 27 years ago.

In the last 10 years of his life, he lived in Acre.