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Slain IDF officer saves lives of five with organ donation

Lt. Roi Nahari was killed in action in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 9.

Olga Paikin, a 44-year-old mother of five, received the liver of Lt. Roi Nahari. Credit: Courtesy of Beilinson Hospital.
Olga Paikin, a 44-year-old mother of five, received the liver of Lt. Roi Nahari. Credit: Courtesy of Beilinson Hospital.

The family of a 23-year-old IDF officer killed in the surprise Hamas assault has donated his organs to five patients at an Israeli hospital.

Lt. Roi Nahari’s family saved Olga Paikin, a 44-year-old mother of five who suffered from hepatitis, a serious liver disease, for the last 30 years, a 72-year-old man who received Roi’s lungs, and three others.

“When they told me a donation was available, I was very excited, and when I found out the donation was from an officer who had just been killed in the war in the south I was moved to my core,” Paikin said in a statement.

“His family has saved my life, and done so during the darkest days of their lives. There are no adequate words to say how thankful I am to them and Lt. Nahari.”

Nahari, from Moshav Ora near Jerusalem, served in the Paratroopers Brigade. He was killed in action in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on Oct. 9.

Dr. Eviatar Nesher, director of the Department of Organ Transplantation at Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, said, “Our hearts break for the Nahari family who suffered an unimaginable loss and yet during their darkest hour, they thought about how Roi could continue to help others by donating his organs so that these individuals can have a renewed gift of life.”

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