Grieving Chinese parents donate baby’s corneas after road crash
Two people receive the gift of sight after son’s tissue was successfully transplanted, newspaper reports
The parents of a two-year-old boy who died after a road accident have donated his corneas for transplant, according to a newspaper report.
Liu Ying died on Tuesday in Suining in Sichuan province 20 months after he suffered brain damage and other serious injuries in a motorcycle crash, Chengdu Economic Daily reported.
Liu was riding on the back seat of his father’s motorcycle with his mother when they were hit by a truck. The baby also had to have his left leg amputated and suffered from wound infections.
After surgery lasting a whole day on February 1, surgeons told Liu’s parents the child might not survive.
They later decided to donate his corneas as a way to extend his short but meaningful life, the article said.
“At least now, someone else can have the joy of seeing this beautiful world through our precious son’s eyes,” Liu’s mother was quoted as saying.
Surgeons and nurses cried and stood in silent tribute to Liu before they performed the operation to remove his corneas, which were later transplanted successfully into two patients, the report said.
No details were given of who received the corneas.
Liu’s parents, whose full names were not given in the report, were partially disabled in the crash, stopping them working, and had to borrow 1,000 yuan (US$158) from a friend to pay the medical fees they owed the hospital.
Staff at the hospital raised more than 30,000 yuan to donate to the family.
“The parents’ compassion and integrity moved us,” a director at the hospital’s paediatrics centre was quoted as saying.
