A person learns about donating organs and body after death at Giac Ngo Pagoda in HCM City on November 25 (Photo courtesy of Vietnam National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation)HCM City (VNA) – As many
as 527 people voluntarily registered to donate their body and organs after
death at a recent event held at in HCM City.
The November 25 event to register donation of
their body and organs for science was
part of a programme called Hanh Trinh Chung Tay Vi Su Song (Public Journey for
Life).
Truong Ngoc Hanh of District 8 told Vietnam
News Agency Television (Vnews) that after death her body could be useful to
medical students like her son, a senior student at Pham Ngoc Thach University
of Medicine.
Nguyen Huy Thong of District 11 said he
registered because organ donation is a “noble” activity.
The event was held by the Vietnam National
Coordinating Centre for in cooperation with the
pagoda,
Buddhism Today Foundation, Pham Ngoc Thach
University of Medicine, and the Vietnam Society for Encouraging Body and Organ
Donation.
Last year 499 volunteers had registered.
Three years after the programme began, the
number of volunteers at the pagoda has topped 1,300, accounting for a third of
the total number countrywide.
One person’s donation can save seven to 13
patients who need organs.
Prof Dr Trinh Hong Son, deputy director of
Vietnam-Germany Hospital and head of the Vietnam National Coordinating Centre
for Human Organ Transplantation, said the centre has undertaken many activities
to popularise the significance of to the public and persuade
people to volunteer.
If relatives of brain-dead patients want to
donate the persons’ organs, any hospital in the country would help them contact
the centre, the Vietnam-Germany Hospital in Hanoi or Cho Ray Hospital in HCM
City, he said.
According to ministry statistics, the country
has 16,000 patients with failed lung, liver or heart and 300,000 others waiting
for cornea transplants.-VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
