Helped by Generous Jet-Setters, Girl, 4, Gets New Liver in Britain

A team of doctors gave a new liver to a 4-year-old Israeli girl Tuesday in a six-hour operation paid for partly by passengers on the airliner that brought her to Britain.

Moran Kadosh was “in a stable condition” after the surgery at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, “but obviously she’s still seriously ill,” said Peter Campion, a spokesman for the 15-member transplant team.

“You can’t use normal words such as happy and so forth to describe someone wired up like she is,” he said. “You obviously don’t look at your best.”

The girl regained consciousness after surgery and was visited by her parents, Zion, 29, and Tova, 28, of Beersheba, Israel, Campion said. She will remain in intensive care for about a week.

The operating team was led by Roy Calne, a leading liver transplant specialist. The organ donor was not identified.

Campion said a liver transplant operation usually costs around $27,000. The child is expected to spend as long as two months in private hospitals, perhaps doubling her medical expenses, he said.

She was on an El Al Israel airliner bound from Tel Aviv to Britain for the operation when the 450 passengers raised $68,000 in a spontaneous collection, according to El Al spokesman Lee Silverman. Initially, El Al erroneously reported $73,000 had been collected.

The hospital’s deputy administrator, Mary Curry, said an Israeli charity, the Whole World Organization, had earlier agreed to pay some of the girl’s expenses.

Liver transplants are not done in Israel.

The London Evening Standard, which gave the story a banner front-page headline, said donors aboard the plane included Cyril Stein, chairman of the Ladbrokes bookmakers and recreation chain, who wrote a check for $24,750.

The Standard quoted liver experts as saying Moran would not have lived another 48 hours without the transplant.

On Monday, doctors had reported that the youngster’s condition was deteriorating and said her name was on the top of the waiting list for a liver transplant.

The condition that caused the child’s liver to fail has not been disclosed.