A Chinese teenager who killed himself so his parents could afford to save his older brother from dying has become a hero as the surviving sibling is now on the road to recovery.
China Daily reports that brothers Honghui (20) and Hongato (18) were diagnosed with Uremia, a symptom of kidney malfunction, within months of each other in 2010.
Unable to afford treatments for both children, parents Chuanyou and wife Zheng Tingxia sold almost everything they owned to pay for two matching kidneys needed to save the boys.
Time was running out and the search for a donor had yielded nothing, so Hongtao locked himself in his room and drank pesticide, dying a painful, slow death.
His body was found beside a heart-wrenching note that read:
“Brother, when you are cured, please tell me and it will be enough for me.”
Both brothers were at the top of their academic classes and the family had just gotten a new house when disaster struck in the summer of 2010.
Just as the family was coming to terms with Honghui’s life hanging in the hands of a kidney donor, Hongato was diagnosed with the exact same condition.
The family was forced to sell their new home as the boys’ father traveled all across China to various medical institutes to seek two matching kidneys.
Teachers and friends of the boys managed to raise another $16,000 for further treatment, but it was not enough.
The parents resorted to begging on the street to keep their children alive.
Hongato couldn’t bear to see his parents begging for money to save him so he wrote a short note and drank pesticide.
“Having both of us is ruining you,” the note read.
“I hope now that you will be able to concentrate on my brother and save his life. When he survives as I know he will, I simply want him to say to me I made it, and I will be content.”
His noble decision made headlines across the country and donations began flooding in.
After a two year search, a match for the surviving brother was found at the end of last year.
Now 23, Hongui has successfully undergone a kidney transplant and will make a full recovery, China Daily reports.
But father Gao Chuanyou (44) still has mixed emotions about what has become of his sons.
He reportedly told local media:
“I wonder perhaps how we can afford to be happy with Gao Hongtao, but we will take it one step at a time.”
Via: China Daily, Top Photo Credit: Getty Images
0 comments :
Post a Comment