Mortimer Burdman was a general surgeon from New York. He was born in Brooklyn in the late 1920's and had a son by his first wife. In 1973 he married an Israeli woman, Osnat, who had two grown up daughters. She had emmigrated to the United States in 1966. In November 1986 they were living in Albertson, New York State when Osnat won $12 million in the New York State lottery. The couple were then in their mid- to late fifties and both promptly planned to retire, they told a news conference. He died in 2003 aged 73 or 74 and was survived by his wife and family.