At Death’s Door // An unplanned journey to an organ trans-plant center saves her life.

By Chaya Silber

The ordeal began innocuously enough. A young woman, on vacation in a foreign country suddenly begins feeling unwell. She goes to a local urgent care center, and is sent to the hospital.

Within hours she is semiconscious, her life hanging by a thread.

One of her organs has failed. She needs an emergency transplant if she is to survive.
In order for that to occur, she has to fly to another foreign country. But the airport is on lockdown.

The following is one woman’s harrowing story:

Motti and Tzurti Reisman (née Goldberger) a young couple living in Monsey were married just eight months when they joined a Lag BaOmer tour visiting the holy sites in Eretz Yisrael.This was to be Motti’s first trip abroad; Tzurti had been abroad once before, as a teenager.

The trip began with high spirits on a Thursday, two days before Lag BaOmer, which was on Motzaei Shabbos and Sunday last year, and continued through the following weekend. The group of 20 couples spent a memorable Shabbos in Yerushalayim, staying in the Jerusalem Gate Hotel, and then traveled to Meron on Motzaei Shabbos, staying in the Galil for a few days. They then returned to Yerushalayim towards the end of the week, and prepared for their second Shabbos in Eretz Yisrael.

So far, it had been an ideal trip, with picture-perfect weather, wonderful accommodations, and excellent company. The days flew by quickly, jam-packed with beautiful sites and interesting tours. All too soon it was Friday, just two days before they were to leave. There was no indication of the coming crisis that would transform their lives.

On Friday night, the members of the tour were scheduled to daven Kabbalas Shabbos at the Kosel. Tzurti, although never one to turn down a memorable opportunity, said she wasn’t feeling so well and went to sleep instead.

When Motti returned to the hotel after davening, he awakened his wife, and they ate a quick meal. Tzurti began complaining of weakness and dizziness. They chalked it up to exhaustion, being that they had not slept much in the past few days. They finished the meal and went to sleep.

As Motti recalls, “That was our last normal night of sleep for the next few months. I had no idea at the time that my wife wasn’t simply under the weather; I had no idea that she was suffering from a life-threatening condition or that her liver was shutting down.

“In the morning, I was alarmed to see that my wife’s face had a yellowish tinge. Since I was a Hatzalah member, I immediately knew that something was wrong. Yet, I didn’t grasp that it was a true emergency. We quickly got dressed and went looking for an urgent care facility that was open. We found one close to the hotel. When the urgent care doctor took one look at my wife, he ordered blood work, and told us to head to the hospital immediately.”

Motti and Tzurti decided to go to the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, which was close by. Fortunately, the Reismans had purchased medical insurance through their travel agent, enabling their hospital expenses to be covered.

When they arrived, the emergency room was overflowing with patients. The harried staff spoke only Hebrew, creating a significant language barrier. However, by that point Tzurti was already very weak and was drifting in and out of consciousness. She was admitted immediately and given a bed, and several vials of blood were drawn.

Before long, a team of doctors broke the shocking news to the couple. Tzurti was suffering from acute liver failure. Somehow she had contracted a serious infection.

The liver’s main job is to filter the blood coming from the digestive tract, before passing it to the rest of the body. The liver also detoxifies chemicals, secreting bile that ends up back in the intestines. If the liver fails, the bloodstream quickly becomes toxic, poisoning the entire body.

With every passing hour, Tzurti’s liver was deteriorating, creating a buildup of toxins that was causing her extreme weakness and yellowish pallor. The hospital staff pumped her with antibiotics, but her liver was not responding. The doctors informed Motti that his wife was in serious danger and might not survive the next few days.

Motti describes what happened next. “I wandered about in a daze, not knowing what to do or where to go. My wife was semi-conscious, attached to machinery, her life in danger. Whom should I call? Where should I go? It was clear that the current hospital wasn’t the right place for her, but was there another option?

As soon as Shabbos was over, he informed the tour guide about Tzurti’s condition. Several of the young couples from the tour with whom they’d become very friendly hurried to the hospital to give them moral support. And then someone suggested contacting Moti Glustein who leads an incredible organization, Medical Service General, which helps Americans navigate the maze of medical care and obtain medical insurance in Eretz Yisrael.

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