News and Events

Family Donates Blood Platelets Together at Rambam

Publication Date: 6/17/2021 10:30 AM

In honor of World Blood Donor Day, an Israeli medical device import company and the owners’ family donated platelets at Rambam Health Care Campus in memory of the company’s founder.

Bepex employees donate platelets in memory of the company's founder alongside two generations of the Pais family. Photography courtesy of Rambam HCC.
Bepex employees donate platelets in memory of the company's founder alongside two generations of the Pais family. Photography courtesy of Rambam HCC.

Employees of the Israeli medical device import company Bepex celebrated World Blood Donor Day by donating blood platelets in the Blood Bank and Platelet Donation Unit at Rambam Health Care Campus. Platelets are the cells responsible for blood clotting, and people with low platelet counts are at risk for life-threatening bleeding. This special donation was made in memory of Edna Pais, the company's founder, who passed away in October 2020. The company, founded in 1969 by Edna and her husband Bruno, imports and markets medical equipment and instruments, including the machines used for platelet donations at Rambam.

In recent years, the couple’s children, Rami and Eyal Pais, have joined the company's management team. Edna was an active grandmother for her six grandchildren, and to mark World Blood Donor Day and honor her memory, Edna’s children and grandchildren chose to donate platelets for the many patients who need it.

Shani Pais, one of Edna’s granddaughters and a data engineering student at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, noted, “Grandma was a confidant and a good friend – a person who took part in our lives even when our parents were not present. She thought about everyone, even people she didn’t know, and always wondered about that person's needs. A day like today is the fulfillment of the thought that we are saving lives by donating platelets to people we don’t know.”

Dr. Lilach Bonstein, Director of the Blood Bank and Platelet Donation Unit, said “Due to the short lifespan of platelets outside the human body, there is a chronic shortage of platelets. In addition, there is also a shortage of donors, which was exacerbated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to Bepex and the Pais family, more than 25 units of platelets were produced, which can help 25 children and adults.”