Doctors and donors from Israel and the United Arab Emirates have completed a historic series of kidney transplants that has saved the lives of three women suffering from kidney disease.

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The procedures, the first ever between Israel and the UAE, are the result of a collaboration between the Alliance for Paired Kidney Donation (APKD) the UAE Organ Donation and Transplant Committee, and the Israel National Transplant Center.

The complicated exchange involved three kidney patients, two from Israel and one from the UAE, in a "pay-it-forward" series of transplants. Each patient had a willing, living donor whose kidney was not a match for them, but did match another patient. So they helped each other: An Abu Dhabi-based donor gave a kidney to a patient from Israel whose husband did not match. The husband donated one of his kidneys to a patient at another hospital in Israel, and in turn that patient's incompatible donor, her daughter, donated her kidney, where it was transplanted into the original Emirati donor's mother.

The transplants involved six surgeries and three hospitals. Kidneys were shipped between Abu Dhabi and Tel Aviv via private jet.

Kidney disease is a leading cause of death around the world. While dialysis helps, kidney transplantation is the only cure once the kidney has failed. Kidney failure patients often have living donors willing to help, only to learn the patient and donor are incompatible, ruling out the possibility of a transplant.

This "kidney diplomacy" is being hailed for saving three lives were saved, helping form valuable relationships, and contribute to new organ transplant regulations. Nations around the world often prohibit transplants among unrelated people in an outdated effort to prevent the black market sale of organs, rules that can block life-saving paired exchanges. Even the US and Canada cannot exchange kidneys across their common border.

"This exchange demonstrates how we can harness our differences for mutual benefit," said Dr. Michael Rees, PhD, chief executive officer of APKD and one of the world's foremost authorities on paired kidney exchange.

"APKD was created to lead innovation in the living donor kidney space, and we hope to connect the world to save more lives through kidney transplantation," Rees said.

APKD provides a global kidney registry for donors powered by a Nobel prize-winning algorithm of Dr. Alvin Roth of Stanford University. Itai Ashlagi, Stanford associate professor, is now helping APKD improve its algorithms, and his work helped make the Israel-UAE living donor exchanges possible.

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Israel was poised to celebrate a special milestone Sunday, as the Matnat Chaim non-profit organization, which encourages and facilitates living kidney donations, is about to break a world record by marking its 1,000th transplant.

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Since Matnat Chaim, Hebrew for "Gift of Life," was founded in 2019, the number of kidney donations in Israel has quadrupled. 

The organization's data reveals that about two-thirds of the donors are men, and a third are women, and that 40% of all donors are teachers or educators. The organization's work is estimated to have saved the state some 4 billion shekels ($1.2 billion) by decreasing the need for treatments, hospitalization, and medication for patients with kidney disease.

The COVID pandemic led to an increase in the number of donations. Some weeks, the organization said, it oversaw five to nine kidney transplants a week. An especially large number of donations occurred when Matnat Chaim's founder Rabbi Yeshayahu Heber passed away after having contracted COVID-19. 

Kidney recipient Kobi Oshrat told Israel Hayom that since he received the transplant, "life has been wonderful." 

"The transplant was more successful than expected. My physical condition improved tremendously. I am back to being a young man. I feel wonderful, active, I do sports and perform," he said.

Oshrat's donor was Yoav Matityahu, and Oshrat says, "We have become a family. He and his wife are wonderful people. Those who decide to donate a kidney are undeniably saving a life. And all of this is happening here, in Israel. It's amazing." 

Culture Minister Yehiel Tropper, who donated a kidney over a year ago, told Israel Hayom that he had not been nervous or afraid of the procedure. 

"I spoke with the doctors beforehand, and they explained the process to me. I understood that the risk was minimal. It's true that it involves an operation, but the understanding that the kidney is highly likely to save a life trumps it all."

As for this week's record that Matnat Chaim is poised to break, Tropper said, "it is one of Israel's greatest points of pride."

"Israel ranks first in the world in organ donations from live donors. We are a wonderful and extraordinary people," he said. 

Discussing the person who received his kidney, Tropper said, "I am in touch with Yair. He had his operation on his 60th birthday. We speak every Friday. We haven't skipped a single Friday, even when it was especially busy. Each time, it's inspirational, over and over again."

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