Bone marrow recipient meets wife, children of donor who died saving lives in Oct. 7 Hamas attack
They were supposed to be brothers for life, but October 7 made sure they never met.
An elderly Israeli physicist whose life was saved by a bone marrow donation from a stranger who died in last year’s brutal Hamas terror attack got to meet the slain man’s family and say thank you for his act of kindness, The Post has learned.
Chaim Lindenbaum, 77, expressed his gratitude to the wife and children of Dr. Daniel Levi — who was slaughtered by terrorists as he tried to aid the wounded in his hometown of Kibbutz Be’eri, near the Gaza border.
“It pains me that I never got to meet him – he saved my life,” said Lindenbaum, who had been scheduled to meet Levi face to face just days after the date of the attack.
The elderly scientist was diagnosed with “aggressive” leukemia in 2022 — and doctors said the grandfather could only survive with a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Fortunately, Levi had signed up to be a bone marrow donor after moving to Israel from Peru — and he came up as a match for Lindenbaum, even though they were no relation.
“It was a perfect match, better than between brothers – I still don’t understand how that happened,” Lindenbaum told The Post from his home in Haifa in the north of Israel.
After finding out he could be a donor, Levi had about one week to prepare for the urgent stem cell transplant, which was arranged through Ezer Mizion, the world’s largest Jewish bone marrow registry.
The transplant was a success, and the older man wanted to thank his benefactor.
But donor rules forced the men to wait a year before the donor’s identity could be revealed.
They were anxious to greet each other, and scheduled a meeting for after the Jewish holiday season that ended on October 7.
“But that didn’t happen,” said Lindenbaum of the meeting that was not to be.
On that day of terror, Levi, a doctor who moved his young family to Kibbutz Be’eri a year earlier, died as he lived: a hero.
With frantic pleas pouring in that morning from the kibbutz medical clinic where he worked, he ran into danger – racing to help treat the severely injured.
As his wife Lihi, 34, daughter, Emma, 5, and son, Liam, 2 were hiding in a safe room for seven hours, Levi calmly texted her, “I love you” while Hamas terrorists opened fire.
Lindenbaum, who lived in the north of the country away from the invasion, received a phone call from Ezer Mizion weeks later.
Before they told him what happened to Levi, the agency “interrogated” him for 15 minutes about his health, just to be sure he was strong enough to take the horrific news.
“She was afraid I would get a heart attack” when learning of his benefactor’s tragic fate.
“I was very sad, I wanted to thank him. His blood system is in my body,” said Lindenbaum, adding that a part of Levi still lives on in him. “He left, aside from his two beautiful kids, his blood, which is my blood.”
During an “exciting and emotional” meeting set up weeks later for the two families by Ezer Mizion, Levi’s widow got a chance to do what her husband dreamed of doing for more than a year, hug his bone marrow recipient.
“I was crying for excitement for him being alive and of course crying for the sadness that Daniel is not there,” said Lihi. “I was so proud to meet the person whose life was saved by Daniel.”
Bending down to the rainbow-dress clad little Emma, Lindenbaum explained, “I was very sick – my blood was sick. And today I’m healthy, thanks to your daddy’s blood.”
Lindenbaum, who holds a doctorate in physics, said that one-third of patients die after a bone marrow transplant.
“I’m not someone who really believes in miracles – there’s no explanation how this happened to me,” he said, noting the deep connection he forged with Lihi. “I feel she is part of my new family.”
The bitter irony of Levi dedicating his life – professionally and personally – to saving lives while he lost his own in the pursuit of saving people was not lost on Lihi.
The widow will not return to the shattered Kibbutz Be’eri, which was considered the hardest-hit community of October 7 with roughly ten percent of its 1,200 residents killed or abducted.
“He saved lives in every way – as a doctor, as a person, as a friend in the kibbutz,” she said. “He wasn’t supposed to die this way and at this age – he was supposed to save so many more lives.”
Lihi added that Levi’s knowledge that his bone marrow recipient survived and was healthy made him “so happy and excited.”
“At least the tragedy makes some good things,” she said. “He’s a gift that Daniel sent us. He wasn’t supposed to be alive.”
