The pain felt by Nguyen Thi Nhan, 62, and her husband Duong Quang Dong, 72, in Uong Bi City still have not subsided. Some months ago, their son, Duong Minh Duc, passed away after of a traffic accident.

This was the second time that they had experienced such great pain. They lost their first son in 2004, also because of a traffic accident.

Nhan told VietNamNet that her second son was a worker in Dong Mai Industrial Zone in Quang Yen Town. On March 31, Duc said goodbye to his parents before leaving for work, saying that he had a girlfriend and he would introduce the girl to his parents. 

Just minutes later, they received bad news: Duc had a traffic accident and was injured severely.

“We could not do anything but embrace each other and cry,” Nhan recalled. The doctors at Vietnam-Sweden Hospital, where Duc was brought, informed Nhan and her husband that the victim was brain dead and had no possibility of recovery, and death was almost certain.

Nhan almost collapsed when hearing the news as she could not believe that her good-natured, strong son would leave his family one day.

At that moment, she thought about donating her son’s organs after recalling a TV program about a boy who had contracted cancer and donated his cornea.

Nhan told her husband and both of them agreed to donate the son's organs, believing that it was a good deed. Doctors told them they needed to make the decision promptly, within 18 hours after death.

Asked about her feeling, Nhan said losing a child is extremely painful for any mother. But she had to accept the truth that she had lost her son. If the son’s organs were donated, many patients could be saved.

“My son was strong, liked playing sports, and never used stimulants, so his health conditions were good. I believed that my son’s organs would be helpful and could save people,” she said.

Duc's heart, two kidneys, two corneas and left and right liver lobes were surgically removed, preserved and transferred to VietDuc Hospital, Hue Central Hospital, and Central Military Hospital No108 to save lives. 

One of the kidney recipients was Nguyen Thanh Tung, 11, who was then near death. Luckily, Duc’s kidney was suited to Tung’s condition, and he survived.

According to Nhan, seven people have been saved thanks to the donated organs.

Pham Cong