SIXTEEN-YEAR-OLD Gwen Tan never stopped giving, even after she
died.
The teenager, who often volunteered to tutor under privileged
kids, gave eight patients a new lease of life when her parents -
who held the belief that their daughter would have wanted to help
others - donated five of her organs after she was declared brain
dead, the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) reported in its May/June
newsletter, Outram Now.
The recipients - five men, two women and a girl - come from
diverse backgrounds. The oldest is 61 and the youngest, three. The
two men who recieved her kidneys each had waited for over seven
years, while the child - born with a rare life-threatening
condition - waited for over a year. In all, Gwen's heart, liver,
kidneys, lungs and corneas were donated.
Gwen, a triple-science student of a top school, collapsed at a
train station one morning last December. 'I tried to massage her
head her head but she stopped me,' said her mum who was with Gwen
then. Other than mild childhood asthma and occasional nosebleeds
due to a thin nose membrane, Gwen seemed a healthy girl, her mother
was quoted as saying. Their names were changed at the family's
request for privacy, said the newsletter .
Mrs Tan decided to take her to a clinic where she was given an
injection and medicine for giddiness and vomiting. But by the time
they left the clinic, Gwen's vision had blurred. Late that night,
she vomitted again and her parents rushed her to hospital.
A CT scan showed a massive blood clot in the left lower back of
her head and doctors diagnosed her to be suffering from Cerebral
Arteriovenous Malformation (AVM) - a congenital disorder that
interrupts blood flow in the brain due to abnormal connections
between arteries and the veins.
Gwen was transferred to an intensive care unit around 1am and
was induced into a coma to minimise brain activities. Her condition
stablised the next morning but deteriorated quickly overnight when
the pressure in her skull spiked. An emergency procedure was done
to relieve pressure on her brain. By the next afternoon,
neurosurgeons told Mrs Tan Gwen's left brain - the part that
controls speech and vision - was damaged.
"According to him, she was like a walking time bomb. As the
high-pressure blood acts at the top of the vein, the thin wall of
the vein is being stretched. It was only a matter of time before it
burst," said Mrs Tan. Another consultant told her Gwen "would be
gone" the moment she was taken off the life support machine.
On Christmas night, doctors told the Tans Gwen's hormones had
become inbalanced - a sign the brain had lost its function. The
following night, she was certified brain dead.
--ST