Donor’s heart valves saved for transplant

NST: She died helping a friend who had been in an accident. But that was not her last good deed: Tan Hui Ying’s two heart valves have been salvaged for transplant.
The 23-year-old Standard Chartered financial executive died in a hospital in Subang Jaya today, after being knocked down by a van on the Kesas Highway at 3am yesterday.
Tan and several others were returning home in a convoy of several cars when one hit a guardrail and overturned.
After helping her friend out of the overturned car, Tan was crossing the highway when she was hit by a van.
Two others who were struck by the van are reported to be in stable condition.
Tan was carrying a donor card pledging her organs in the event of death.
Doctors failed to salvage her heart and lungs, but they did manage to retrieve her aortic and pulmonary heart valves. These were taken to the National Heart Institute, where they will be stored for future transplant.
At the wake in Pandamaran, her father Tan Chuan said he felt that Hui Ying was still alive.
"She is not dead yet. She is still alive. Only her body is gone but she lives on."
Tan Chuan said his daughter had told her sister a few years ago that when she died she wanted to donate her heart.
The 60-year-old port supervisor said his daughter, the third of four children, was a cheerful person who loved to help people.
"She always said that if she donated her heart, she would still be around in somebody. I can picture her now, smiling happily because she managed to help someone," he said.
A police spokesman said a statement from the 40-year-old driver of the van had been recorded.