Heartfelt gifts of life-China
Global Times | Liu Dong
Shanghai has around 1,200 blind people seeking cornea transplants every year but only 2 percent will receive a transplant, according to the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China. Photo: CFP
It was a heartbreaking tragedy for 9-year-old Yin Jialin and her parents. The bright young girl, who had a congenital heart disease, fell seriously ill last year and died in December, just after her birthday. But while her death broke her parents' hearts, it brought a special gift to someone else in Shanghai. A year before the little girl had decided to donate her corneas and these were transplanted to two young blind children, giving them sight.
Yin's mother was a doctor and knew well that her daughter had a little chance of living a full life when she was born, but she wanted her daughter to enjoy as much of life as possible.
"We sent her to kindergarten and school for a month because we wanted her to have the experience of school friends and teachers," the mother said. Yin loved the experience and in 2008, when she saw the children who had lost families and schools in the Sichuan earthquake, she donated what she could. When she learned that blind children could see again if people donated their corneas, she told her parents that was what she wanted to do.
She pushed her parents until eventually they went to the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China to get cornea donation application forms. They filled in the forms but were reluctant to actually forward these until Yin became seriously ill late last year. Yin's mother has also decided to become a donor.
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{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
Shanghai has around 1,200 blind people seeking cornea transplants every year but only 2 percent will receive a transplant, according to the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China. Photo: CFP
It was a heartbreaking tragedy for 9-year-old Yin Jialin and her parents. The bright young girl, who had a congenital heart disease, fell seriously ill last year and died in December, just after her birthday. But while her death broke her parents' hearts, it brought a special gift to someone else in Shanghai. A year before the little girl had decided to donate her corneas and these were transplanted to two young blind children, giving them sight.
Yin's mother was a doctor and knew well that her daughter had a little chance of living a full life when she was born, but she wanted her daughter to enjoy as much of life as possible.
"We sent her to kindergarten and school for a month because we wanted her to have the experience of school friends and teachers," the mother said. Yin loved the experience and in 2008, when she saw the children who had lost families and schools in the Sichuan earthquake, she donated what she could. When she learned that blind children could see again if people donated their corneas, she told her parents that was what she wanted to do.
She pushed her parents until eventually they went to the Shanghai Branch of the Red Cross Society of China to get cornea donation application forms. They filled in the forms but were reluctant to actually forward these until Yin became seriously ill late last year. Yin's mother has also decided to become a donor.
Continue reading
{Register to be an organ,eye and tissue donor. To learn how, www.donatelife.net or www.organdonor.gov}
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