She said that her and her mother’s organ donation is a part of a campaign launched by the Miss World Vietnam beauty pageants aimed at encouraging people to become organ donors.
She added that she didn’t want to reveal the news of organ donation but later she expected her deed will inspire other to follow.
Before the Vietnamese beauty queen, actors and actresses such as MC Quyen Linh, MC Ngoc Huong, singers Nguyen Phi Hung, Khac Viet, Viet Trinh had registered to donate their organs. 66-year-old woman Pham Thi Hoa in Thu Duc District and six of her relatives all agreed to donate their organs after death.
Vietnam’s healthcare sector has made great strides in organ transplantations to save many people’s lives. However, shortage of donors still costs lives since thousands of patients waiting expectantly for a lifesaving operation.
Head of Cho Ray Hospital’s human organ coordinating department Dr. Du Thi Ngoc Thu said that out of 10,600 organ donors having registered to give away their organs since October, 2014, 34 of them have gifted their organs for transplanted surgeries.
According to medical workers, around 23,000 patients are waiting for liver operation; however, as many as brain-dead 50 people have agreed to give their organs prior to death since January, 2007 because Vietnamese socio-cultural beliefs and customs.
There has been a great demand for healthy body parts for transplantation, far exceeding the numbers available. Therefore, rings of organ trade for transplantation have enticed poor people to sell their organs though Vietnamese law doesn’t allow this.
Another barrier in organ grafts, according to Dr. Thu, is enormous medical cost in addition to shortage of donated organ. Though medical cost of an organ transplantation in the country is lower than in other countries, poor patients can’t afford such a big amount of money.
A patient pays averagely hundred million to VND1 billion for a surgery excluding medication worth millions a month after operation probably for the rest of their life.
