The family of Yi Rongsheng who passed away due to a brain disease donated his corneas and body April 1 according to his will, becoming the latest organ and body donor in the city, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.
Yi was 86 when he died of brain failure at Shenzhen People’s Hospital in Luohu District. The air force veteran had told his family 10 years ago that he wanted to donate his body for the medical cause.
Yi came with his wife, Zhang Meicheng, from Hunan Province to stay with their children in Shenzhen after he retired, according to the report.
“He read a lot of media reports on organ and body donations in the city and remembered a public service announcement about organ donation he saw on a bus station after we came to live in Shenzhen,” Zhang said, adding that the family was very supportive of his decision to sign with the Red Cross Society of China to donate his body after death.
According to the figures provided by the Shenzhen branch of Red Cross Society of China, Shenzhen has seen 1,043 cornea donors, 430 body donors and 359 donors of other organs since 1999, when the city launched the country’s first cornea donation campaign.
In 1999, Xiang Chunmei, a teacher with Shenzhen University, donated her corneas, becoming the city’s first-ever organ donor.
The donations have restored the eyesight of more than 2,000 patients with eye diseases and the lives of more than 800 patients who suffered from organ failure, the Daily said.
Organ donation is one of two civilized behaviors that make Shenzheners proud. The concept of organ donation has been widely accepted by local residents, and the act has become a calling card representing the city’s humanity, the report said.
Over the decades, Shenzhen has led the country in organ and body donations. A regulation on organ donation was officially adopted in the city in 2003, which was the first of its kind in the country.
The Shenzhen branch of Red Cross Society of China set up the first organ donation office in the country in 2008, and a volunteer team was formed in 2010 to promote organ and body donations, according to the report.