Family of 12-year-old who lost his life in a traffic accident donates his organs

The organs of 12-year-old Turkish Cypriot boy who lost his life in a traffic accident has been donated to three patients waiting for organ transplants.

Arda Okur died following a road traffic accident that happened on September, 22 when he was seriously injured at a crossroads when a lorry hit the car in which he was a passenger. Arda died in the intensive care unit at the Lefkosa State Hospital 20 days later.

Chief Physician at the hospital Dr. Hasan Birtan stated that after Arada was declared brain dead, the organ transplant coordinator approached his family and the family agreed to donate.

Dr. Birtan said that Arda’s heart and two kidneys were donated to three patients in North Cyprus and his liver was donated to a patient in Turkey.

Okur’s kidneys were donated to two separate patients while his heart was donated to another patient who had been living on an artificial heart for the past seven years.

Speaking to the press at the Lefkoşa Dr. Burhan Nalbantoğlu State Hospital’s Oncology Service, Health Minister İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra highlighted the importance of organ donations in saving lives.

She announced that everything went well with the transplant of the little boy’s heart and two kidneys and that the patients are recovering.

Approximately 100 people in the TRNC are on a waiting list for a kidney transplant and 20 for a heart transplant, reports said.