Levi Rivlin Dies at 20 After Four-Year Battle With Bone Cancer

Levi Rivlin, 20, died about a month ago after a four-year fight with osteosarcoma. Her mother, Limor Rivlin, said the death was sudden: Levi had been asleep with her in the Houston home where they were staying, and within seconds she began bleeding and could not be saved. Limor told ynet that the likely cause was a lung metastasis that led to a collapsed lung and an aneurysm, possibly from a tear in a major artery. Medical staff were also surprised, and Limor said, "She could have had a longer road ahead, but this is what happened."

Levi was first diagnosed in March 2022, when she was 15 and living in Tzur Yitzhak. A science-track student at Beit Chinuch Yarkon, a Scouts counselor and an avid runner, she had complained of knee pain after regularly running more than 10 kilometers twice a week. Doctors at her local clinic took the complaints seriously, and within less than two months she was diagnosed with bone cancer, specifically osteosarcoma. Levi told her mother from the start, "Mom, I want to live. Even if it means I need to have my leg amputated, I am ready."

In the end, her leg did not need to be amputated. She was treated at Rambam Medical Center, underwent chemotherapy and a complex surgery on her left leg, in which part of her femur and knee were removed and replaced with an implant. After a long recovery at Loewenstein Rehabilitation Hospital, she appeared to recover fully, completed her matriculation exams with honors, returned to the Scouts and began planning her future. For more than a year the family believed the battle had been won, until April 2024, when the cancer returned and spread. She developed lung metastases and later underwent spinal stabilization surgery at Sheba after a vertebra was damaged.

Despite the relapse, Levi kept trying to live normally. She began national service at the Defense Ministry, joined a gym and continued treatment. She loved science and math, planned to take a math course at Rice University after the summer while staying in Houston, and was also interested in public policy. When Israeli treatment options were exhausted, the family turned to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. To fund travel and care, they launched a public campaign to raise 5 million shekels, supported by the charity Let’s Reach Out. Limor said the campaign gave Levi strength and that the family never felt alone.

In Houston, Levi first entered a chemotherapy trial that did not help after four cycles, but a later experimental biological treatment did shrink the lung metastases. She was supposed to begin another experimental therapy, offered only at a small number of hospitals worldwide, but died before receiving it. Limor said she wants Levi’s story to encourage other families to keep fighting, saying many children do recover from cancer and that it is worth enduring the hardship because "you come out to life." Levi is survived by her parents, Limor and Yoav, and her younger sister Hadas.