From the ST Forum Page, Tuesday - 20 January 2004
We gave
away our daughter's organs
THE debate in Parliament on the amendments to the Human Organ
Transplant Act recently caught my attention. It brought me back to
the tragedy I had experienced just days before.
My beloved daughter collapsed and died from a rupture of an
aneurysm in her brain at the young age of 34 on Dec 21. It came
without warning for she had been a very active and healthy woman.
Seconds before her collapse, she was talking and joking with her
cousins.
She was rushed to Singapore General Hospital where she was put on
life-support. A brain scan showed massive blood clots in the left
hemisphere.
The next morning, the doctors told my husband and me that the few
tests that had been done pointed to brain death, but that they
would have to do two more tests when certain conditions in her body
had stabilised before they could certify her brain dead.
On Christmas Eve, two neurosurgeons did the tests and officially
declared her brain dead. The ward doctor then told us that her
brain actually died the moment she collapsed and that she did not
suffer any pain.
Even as we were grieving over our great loss, we decided to donate
her organs to save others, because she had once mentioned that in
the event of her death, she would like to donate her organs for the
advancement of science or to save others.
Even as we decided to donate her organs we were still praying and
hoping for a miraculous healing. We were just not ready to let her
go.
But when the doctors told us that her organs would deteriorate if
we delayed having them removed, we finally accepted the fact that
she was no more with us and consented.
Watching her being wheeled away to the operating theatre to have
her organs removed, I felt as though my heart was being wrenched
out of my body. The only comfort was that I knew many lives would
be saved. Ironically, not all her organs were taken though we had
indicated that all her organs could be taken for transplant. It
could be that the doctors could not find a patient with the same
blood group.
If our daughter could save others in her death, then she had not
died in vain. I know how very painful it is to lose a loved one but
think of the many lives one would be saving and how much happiness
one would be bringing to the recipients' families.
As for my husband and myself, we had signed up to donate all our
organs as early as 1982.
I fervently hope that people will not opt out so that they can save
those who are suffering or dying from organ failure. Who knows? One
day we might even be at the receiving end.
Y. C. SOON (MDM)
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,4386,231033-1074635940,00.html?
