‘Can you hear her heart’?: Dee family meets patients who received Lucy’s organs
A deeply emotional meeting has taken place at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tivka where the Dee family for the first time met the patients who received organs from the late Lucy Dee.
“Can you hear her heart beat?” Lital asked Keren Dee, the daughter of Lucy Dee who was killed in a terror attack last month. “Yes,” Keren replied and started crying.
Jewish News was at the scene during a highly emotional meeting on Tuesday at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikwa where the Dee family met for the first time the donor patients who each received organs from the late Lucy Dee.
Both surviving daughters, Keren and Tali, listened to 51-year-old Lital Valenci’s heart beat through a stethoscope.
WATCH: “Can you hear her heart beat?” Lital asked Keren Dee, the daughter of Lucy Dee who was killed in a terror attack last month. “Yes,” Keren replied and started crying. Lital received her mother’s heart just three weeks ago. pic.twitter.com/5TwSSKS1ut
— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) May 2, 2023
“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,” said Keren.
“Nobody can understand what it is like losing a mother and two sisters at once and to hear my mother’s heartbeat was comforting,” added Tali.
Rabbi Leo Dee said he had been “in tears” all morning in anticipation of the meeting with the patients, but that seeing them all made him feel happy again. “You saved my life. Thank you so much,” Lital told the family.
Valenci, 51, who suffered from severe heart failure for five years, waited eight agonising months for a new heart, with doctors warning she had months to live without a transplant. But Lucy Dee’s heart eventually saved her.
“I actually though I was going to burst into tears when I saw you,” Rabbi Dee told Lital. “And I didn’t. I felt joy. So thank you for bringing us back up.”
The doctors who had participated in three patients’ organ transplants also described how emotional and extraordinary the situation had been for them.
“There was not a dry eye in the room as Keren and Tali raised their hands to Lital’s chest to hear their mother’s heartbeat,” said Prof. Dan Aravot, Beilinson Hospital’s Director of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery.
“We often talk about the physical recovery after a transplant but there is an emotional component that comes with it, and it was very important to Lital to meet the Dee family and share her condolences with them and how appreciative she is to have the gift of life and watch her children grow up because of Lucy Dee,” added Prof. Aravot, who performed the heart transplant and has been overseeing Valenci’s recovery.
25-year-old Daniel Geresh, who received a liver transplant from Lucy after she was killed, also came to thank the family at the hospital.
“Daniel was very sick. If he hadn’t received the transplant, his situation would’ve continued to deteriorate. Your actions simply saved him. Your courage as a family is admirable. It moved us all,” Dr. Eviatar Nesher told the Dee family.
Daniel’s mother told Rabbi Dee that she would forever be grateful for the family’s decision to donate Lucy’s liver to her son, and that she would never forget that they made him “smile again after so long”.
WATCH: Keren Dee couldn’t hold back the tears as she listened to the heartbeat of Lital Valenci, who received her murdered mum Lucy’s heart in a transplant. The Dee family met mum-of-two Lital for the first time today. pic.twitter.com/OgcP9mL5G9
— Jewish News (@JewishNewsUK) May 2, 2023
One of Lucy Dee’s kidneys also helped save a 38-year-old Arab-Israeli man, Ahmad Suliman, who couldn’t participate in today’s meeting.
When it was announced that Suliman was the recipient of Lucy’s kidney, Rabbe Leo said: “I think that is significant to us because Lucy was very much into peaceful relations with our neighbours and I think she would have been very proud that she saved the life of an Arab.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
