Israel’s youngest corona victim: High tech engineer, 37, father of two

Doron, 37, had a preexisting medical condition and succumbed to coronavirus after attempts by family to find plasma donations from those who recovered from the disease.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The youngest pandemic victim in Israel is a 37-year-old high tech engineer and father of two young girls, Channel 12 reported on Wednesday.

Identified only by his first name, Doron died Tuesday at the Sharon Hospital in Petah Tikvah after battling for his life for the past week.

“We fought until the last minute,” his wife said. “We wanted to start a plasma donation campaign for him, but we didn’t manage. We asked everyone who could donate but it was too late.”

“When we obtained permission from the health ministry to see if there was a suitable plasma donation for him, it was too late because an hour later I was informed he was gone.”

As of Wednesday 801 Israelis have fully recovered from the virus and the Magen David Adom ambulance service late last week began collecting plasma from volunteers in the bid to produce treatments.

The software engineer had suffered from an unspecified background illness before contracting coronavirus. Most of the 71 victims to date in Israel have been elderly with preexisting medical conditions that were complicated by the coronavirus infection.

“Doron always helped everyone,” his wife said. “He was so good, so humble. Even when he was hospitalized, he helped with the children.”

Before his death the family posted requests for blood donations from everyone who had recovered from corona.

“Those who were ill and have recovered, please go to a hospital and offer blood donations for the benefit of the patients,” the post said. “It can save lives! A young 37-year-old man is sick with corona. He is in very serious condition, anesthetized and breathing. He has two little girls. Please share (the post).”

Ministry of Health statistics released Wednesday morning show 9,404 people have tested positive since the outbreak of the pandemic. Of the 740 people currently hospitalized, 147 are in serious condition and 122 of them are breathing with the help of ventilators.

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