Three pairs of kidney donors and recipients in Israel and the UAE helped save each other in a series of pay-it-forward surgeries. A UAE woman, who was not a match for her mother, volunteered to give up her kidney to a stranger. An Israeli Arab woman was a match for that kidney, and her husband agreed to donate his kidney to save an Israeli Jewish mother. The Israeli woman’s daughter gave her kidney to the mother in UAE. The exchange, a first between an Arab nation and Israel, was made possible by the 2020 Abraham Accords, a historic peace agreement. “What I felt in that moment on the plane was this transplant opportunity was a bridge between hearts, between two countries that had been enemies,” Tamar Ashkenazi, managing director of the Israel National Transplant Center, told USA TODAY, which was granted exclusive access to those involved in the historic exchange. “We all knew that this was special.” #transplant #kidney #kidneytransplant #organdonor #uae #israel #history #family