Brain Dead 6-Year-Old Boy Save 3 Lives in Japan

A 6-year-boy was declared brain dead at a hospital in Chiba, Japan October 12 and his heart was taken out, transported to Tokyo University Hospital on October 13 morning and transplanted in a 10-year-old boy. The operation was successful and the boy is fast recovering.

The recipient boy was suffering from left ventricular myocardium refinement disorder.

The brain dead boy also donated his liver and kidneys. A 10-year-old girl received his liver at the National Center for Child Health and Development, Setagaya, Tokyo. The girl has inborn errors of metabolism.

A 30-year-old woman in Chiba is the recipient of the boy's kidneys. She is suffering from chronic renal failure.

Both operations have been finished successfully by October 14.

Ever since the Revised Organ Transplant Law was enacted five years go, 8 transplant operations have been performed so far with organs donated by children under 15 years of age. This was the fourth transplant with donations from children under 6 years of age where determination criteria is more strict.

The revised transplant law now makes it possible for a brain dead person under 15 years of age, unless the person has beforehand rejected donation, can donate upon family's consent. The first case was in June 2012 at Toyama University Hospital of a boy under 6 years of age; the second case was of a girl at Juntendo University in November 2014; the third was the case of a girl who was declared brain dead in January this year at Osaka University Hospital.

The parents of the brain dead boy said they had habitually talked about donation if anything should happen to themselves and/or their child. "It had to happen this way but we do not repent over our judgment", they said.