‘He saved my life’: desperate Chinese mother gets fast-track transplant thanks to late husband who gave his heart, liver and kidneys
- 36-year-old mum says major organ donations by late husband not only saved other people, they also saved her and their two kids
- Struggling family benefit from policy in China which gives relatives of organ donors the ability to move up the queue for a transplant
The life of a Chinese mother of two in desperate need of a kidney transplant has been saved by her husband, even though he died three years ago.
The 36-year-old woman, who suffered from kidney failure and required dialysis three times a week, is on the road to recovery after receiving a donated organ late last month in a hospital in Hangzhou, in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang, the Qianjiang Evening News reported last week.
Under normal circumstances Wu Yun, not her real name, would have been forced to wait more than two-and-a-half years for a transplant.
However, thanks to her late husband, who died from a cerebral haemorrhage in 2019 and donated multiple organs, her path to a transplant was cleared because his contribution to medical science allowed her to be placed on a recipient priority list.
“It never occurred to me that not only had he saved other people, but also helped me and our kids,” Wu was quoted as saying.
The family decided to donate the man’s kidneys, his heart and liver to help others after his sudden death at the age of 36, when Wu was still healthy.
She was diagnosed with a kidney problem soon after her husband passed away and suffered three years of medication and latterly several months of dialysis until her need for a new organ became urgent.
Then her husband’s contribution kicked in and Wu was judged a priority case. Not only did she get a new kidney earlier than would normally have been the case, but a portion of the transplant fee was also waived due to her status as a spouse of a donor.
This not only gave her a new life but saved the low-income family from a big financial burden, said the woman, whose younger child is just five years old.
Having left their two children at home with relatives, the couple were migrant workers in Zhejiang before Wu’s husband died.
Four people received his organs after she was persuaded by social activists to make the donations.
Wu had no knowledge of the priority recipient policy until she was told of its existence by one of those activists.
“I was told by the doctors a long time ago that I needed a kidney transplant, but I never thought about it because I couldn’t afford the hundreds of thousands of yuan it costs, and besides, there would be a long wait for a healthy kidney,” she said.
Learning about the priority policy filled her with new hope, she said.
“I want to live on. The two kids need their mother,” said Wu, who was released from hospital last week after a successful transplant on November 24.
She said she has kept her husband’s organ donations a secret from her children.
“When they grow up, I will show them the donation certificate and tell them that dad not only helped others but also saved mum,” she said.
