HCM CITY — At an event held at Giác Ngộ Pagoda in HCM City to register donation of their body and organs for science on November 25, 527 volunteers signed up.

The event was held as part of a programme called Hành Trình Chung Tay Vì Sự Sống (Public Journey for Life).

Trương Ngọc Hạnh of District 8 told Vietnam News Agency Television (Vnews) that after death her body could be useful to medical students like her son, a senior student at Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine.

Nguyễn Huy Thông of District 11 said he registered because organ donation is a “noble” activity.

The event was held by the Việt Nam National Co-ordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation in co-operation with the pagoda, Buddhism Today Foundation, Phạm Ngọc Thạch University of Medicine, and the Việt Nam Society for Encouraging Body and Organ Donation.

Last year 499 volunteers had registered.

Three years after the programme began, the number of volunteers at the pagoda has topped 1,300, accounting for a third of the total number country-wide.

One person’s donation can save seven to 13 patients who need organs.

Prof Dr Trịnh Hồng Sơn, deputy director of Việt Đức Hospital and head of the Việt Nam National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplantation, said the centre has undertaken many activities to communicate the significance of organ donation to the public and persuade people to volunteer.

If relatives of brain-dead patients want to donate the person’s organs, any hospital in the country would help them contact the centre, the Việt Đức Hospital in Hà Nội or Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City, he said.

According to ministry statistics, the country has 16,000 patients with failed lung, liver or heart and 300,000 others waiting for cornea transplants. — VNS