The family of a 41-year-old man who was declared brain dead after a traffic accident in southern Binh Phuoc Province decided to donate his organs to revive five others while taking him to his hometown — Nghe An Province in north-central Vietnam.

Family members of L.V.H. stopped at the Hue Central Hospital in Thua Thien-Hue Province, central Vietnam to donate H.’s organs, including a liver, two kidneys, and two corneas, instead of going straight home.

H. is the second brain-dead person to donate his organs at the hospital.

He got into a traffic accident while returning home from work in Binh Phuoc.

He was later rushed to Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City for treatment but doctors failed to save him.

His family later asked Cho Ray Hospital to allow them to take H. to Nghe An so that other family members could meet him for the last time.

On the way home, L.T.N., H.’s younger sister, thought that her older brother was a kind man who lived his whole life for others, so she discussed with and encouraged other family members to fulfill H.’s wishes to donate organs to save other people.

This would also help keep parts of her brother’s body surviving longer.

After getting other family members’ support, she immediately called the National Coordinating Center for Human Organ Transplantation and got the center’s instructions on the way.

They first stopped at the Binh Dinh General Hospital in the namesake south-central province where doctors gave medical support.

The family wanted to take H. to a hospital in Nghe An before his heart stopped beating so that his relatives could meet him one more time.

However, the condition of his organs could not be ensured during the journey of over 1,000 kilometers, so his family and medical workers in the ambulance carrying H. decided to stop at the Hue Central Hospital for the organ removal.

Doctors there quickly helped the family complete organ donation procedures.

A team from Hanoi-based Viet Duc University Hospital also traveled to Thua Thien-Hue Province on the same day to check the compatibility of H.’s liver with the recipient.

Before a surgery to take his organs, the board of directors of the Hue Central Hospital were fully present at the operating room to say goodbye to the man and thank him and his family for their humane act.

“With your and your family’s noble act, many lives will continue,” said Professor Dr. Pham Nhu Hiep, director of the Hue Central Hospital.

After the surgery, doctors from the Viet Duc University Hospital immediately brought H.’s liver to Phu Bai Airport where they boarded a flight back to Hanoi to perform a liver transplant on a patient suffering from liver failure.

Doctors at the Hue Central Hospital gave H.’s two kidneys to two severe kidney failure cases in Thua Thien-Hue Province, while two corneas helped give sight to two other patients in the province.

The four recipients in Thua Thien-Hue have recovered, while the patient in Hanoi is also making good progress, a representative of the Hue Central Hospital said on Saturday.

“Our family expects the recipients of H.’s organs to be always healthy. Once they are healthy, our family’s act is meaningful and H. can rest in peace,” N. said.

She added that H. is the first-born child in a three-child family in Nghe An.

Their father is a war invalid who lost his right leg in wartime in Vietnam.

Their mother is old and has no pension, so H. monthly sent part of his salary to support their parents.

H. used to say that he would repair his parents’ house at the end of this year, but his plan is left incomplete.

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