Three pounds of reddish-brown tissue tucked under the diaphragm, your liver churns out over 1,000 different types of enzymes to help you digest food, store energy, and wash out toxins.

The liver, in its complexity and multiple functions, “puts to shame the heart, lungs, and other headline-grabbers,” comments Prof. Rifaat Safadi, director of the Hadassah Medical Organization’s 30-year-old liver unit.

Each year, Hadassah admits 7,000 patients to its liver unit and, according to Prof. Safadi, the number of patients would triple with larger facilities. Fortunately, plans for the renovation of Hadassah’s iconic Round Building include 16 beds dedicated to an expanded liver facility which, Prof. Safadi notes, “will save even more lives.”

Read the full Hadassah Magazine article about the patients Hadassah has saved, such as Rodney Lando, whose liver problems began with a dog bite at a museum, and Sara Quasrawi, who suffered liver failure when she succumbed to heatstroke while running in the desert.