jerusalem (jps) | Three weeks after pediatric hematologist Rina Zaizov was awarded the Israel Prize for Medical Research, she died at the age of 73 at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. The funeral was held on June 2 at the Nes Ziona cemetery.
Zaizov’s niece Orna accepted the prize in her place because Zaizov was already being treated for her unnamed “serious illness” at Beilinson. Zaizov devoted her life to children suffering from leukemia, thalassemia, Gaucher’s and other blood disorders.
A world-renowned researcher in the field, she worked for years at Beilinson and later headed the pediatric hematology department at the adjacent Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel in Petah Tikva until her retirement in 1998.
Her innovations in the treatment protocols for leukemia were introduced and became standard practice in hospitals around the world. After her retirement, she continued as an adviser to Clalit Health Services.
Zaitzvov took a six-month sabbatical in the Bay Area during the 1990s, during which time she did research at Children’s Hospital in San Francisco, the Children’s Hospital in Oakland and the UCSF Medical Center.
She was survived by her husband, Haim Marx, a soil engineer of Tel Aviv, who graduated from U.C. Berkeley in the 1950s; a sister, Misha, also of Tel Aviv; and two nieces, Orna, also of Tel Aviv, and Talia, of New York; and many cousins, including Carol Ogren of Moraga and her husband Kenneth.