Jeon Su-yeon donates organs at Chonnam National University Hospital after brain death

A youth full of dreams: traveling with her mother, becoming a nurse

Jeon Su-yeon. [Korea Organ and Tissue Donation Agency]
Jeon Su-yeon. [Korea Organ and Tissue Donation Agency]

A 22-year-old woman who put her family first gave new life to eight people through brain-death organ donation before she died. Her dream of traveling the country alone with her mother was one she never got to fulfill.

According to the Korea Organ and Tissue Donation Agency on Thursday, Jeon Su-yeon, 22, donated her organs after being declared brain-dead at Chonnam National University Hospital on Feb. 23, giving life to eight recipients.

Jeon collapsed suddenly and was rushed to the hospital, where she never regained consciousness and was eventually declared brain-dead. Her parents, who had discussed organ donation with the family, decided to donate their daughter's organs. The family said it was a comfort to know that her heart would keep beating in someone else's body and that someone would see the world through her eyes.

Through the donation, Jeon gave her heart, lungs, liver, both kidneys and both corneas to eight people. Human tissue, including skin, was also donated.

Jeon was quiet and introverted, but she was a deeply thoughtful youngest daughter who put her family ahead of herself. Her older sister, just a year her senior, had been battling illness since childhood, and Jeon would give up things she wanted rather than add to the family's burden.

"Because her sister was sick, Su-yeon grew up fast," her mother, Jeong Yeong-sun, recalled. "She was a steady pillar for the family, and to me she was like a friend — a daughter I could open my heart to."

Jeon had many dreams. She learned baking during her school years and earned a national cosmetology license, showing a natural talent with her hands. More recently, she had been preparing for a nursing aide certification, with a goal of saving enough money to enter university and become a nurse.

She also had wishes she wanted to fulfill with her family. Though no concrete plans had been made, she had promised her mother they would one day travel the country together, just the two of them. She also harbored a hope of walking down the aisle on her father's arm at her wedding someday. She would often tell her father, who had always looked after her with care, "You have to live a long time, because you need to walk me down the aisle."

Her mother said it would stay with her for the rest of her life that her daughter left without fulfilling the dreams they had shared as a family. Even so, hoping that the meaning of her daughter's gift of life would be long remembered, the family waited eight months after the donation before making it public.

In a final message to her daughter, the mother said: "Su-yeon, don't be in pain where you are now — live freely and happily doing all the things you couldn't do here. Don't worry about your sister, don't worry about Mom and Dad — just do what you want. Thank you for being born as my daughter. I love you."


jshan@heraldcorp.com