Miriam Kishishvili, a 19-year-old Georgian Jew in country as part of the popular Birthright Israel program, received a life-saving liver transplant after making emergency aliyah.
A few days into her free 10-day trip to Israel, Kishishvili began complaining of stomach pains and bloating in her stomach and appendages. An examination at the Internal Medicine and Liver Institute at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah revealed that Kishvili suffered from a severe case of Wilson's Disease, a rare genetic metabolic disease in which copper accumulates in tissues, with symptoms manifesting as neurological or psychiatric symptoms and liver disease.
Because Kishishvili's prognosis was so critical that doctors did not believe she would survive the trip back to Georgia for a liver transplant, doctors at Beilinson petitioned for an emergency aliyah (immigration to Israel) application for their patient, so her surgery could be done locally. Thanks to expedition in the citizenship process by the Absorption and Interior ministries, Kishishvili was naturalized in 3 days, and taken into surgery immediately.
According to the Director of Beilinson, Dr. Boaz Tadmor, staff at the hospital immediately began preparations for the surgery, despite a lack of funding and immigration approval, saying he believed it was imperative to do whatever possible to save her life.
Kishishvili's mother was called to rush to Israel and donate part of her liver to her daughter, but an Israeli donor was found a day before the surgery.
The liver was transplanted by Professor Eytan Mor, director of the
Transplant Unit. After some time in intensive care, Kishishvili's condition
has improved.
Birthright Israel (Taglit) provides the gift of first time, peer group, educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18 to 26. Founders of the program established the program "to send thousands of young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity among world Jewry; and to strengthen participants' personal Jewish identity and connection to the Jewish people."