Woman, 20, donates organs after giving birth to twins

By Wang Jianfen (chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2016-04-17 13:18

File photo of Shao Ziyan. [Photo from web]

A woman died at the young age of around 20 but not before giving new life not only to a pair of twins, but also to four other people.

Shao Ziyan had been in coma since Feb 23 when she gave birth to twin boys. After 53 days of treatment at intensive care unit (ICU), her heart stopped beating at 10:01 am April 15, Friday. Hours later, her heart, kidneys and liver were successfully transplanted to four people. Her corneas were also donated and frozen and would be used in the future, local online news portal in Zhejiang province zjol.com.cn reported Saturday.

Shao's story was shared on the social media Friday night by doctors and moved many people. Donations surged since then and exceeded 230,000 yuan ($35,500) by Saturday. Shao's family launched an online donation appeal about six days ago.

The story of the young mother who died at a blooming age is sad. She met and fell in love with hair stylist Chen Shanhai in Jiaxing, East China's Zhejiang province, two years ago and they decided to marry in the second half of this year after childbirth.

However, Shao was diagnosed with acute liver enlargement due to pregnancy on Feb 22, and multiple organs failure. It was more than 40 days before the expected date of delivery, and both she and the unborn children were in critical conditions.

The boys were safely born in C-Section the next day and were hospitalized for about one month and recovered from infections accompanying early birth.

Shao was not as lucky as her sons. She had been in deep coma since then. The hospital in Jiaxing pronounced her brain dead and the family transferred her to a better hospital in Hangzhou, the provincial capital, on April 12 to have a final try.

"The doctor told us that by donating organs the life of my daughter could be resumed in other people. It feels like she were still alive and had never left me," Shao Wanhua, Shao's father, said.

It is extremely difficult in China to get donated organs, according to Dr Wu Xiaoliang with the First Hospital of Zhejiang Province in Hangzhou. Only one in 30-50 patients could get transplanted organs, and currently there are more than 2,000 patients waiting for organs in the hospital, said Wu.

China has faced a severe shortage of donated organs because of traditional beliefs that many people cannot accept the idea of their body being buried incomplete. Because of the lack of organs, some patients have had to wait for months or even years for suitable organs.

Only two in every one million deaths said they would donate organs after death in China, compared to 30 in developed countries, according to Wu.

The organ donation system has developed fast since China decided to stop using organs from executed prisoners for transplant surgery on Jan 1 last year, making voluntary donations from citizens the only source, Huang Jiefu, chairman of the National Organ Donation and Transplantation Committee, said earlier this month.