Greek man 1st foreigner to donate organs in Guangdong

A Greek man touched the hearts of many local residents after he became the first foreigner in Guangdong province to donate organs.

Sherif El Gazzar, 37, who used to do business in Zhongshan, a Pearl River Delta city in Guangdong, fell ill on Aug 17 and was sent to a local hospital. He was transferred to Zhujiang Hospital of Southern Medical University in Guangzhou the next day and died the night of Aug 22.

His family decided to donate his organs to help people in need. His older sister signed the organ release forms on Thursday, witnessed by many of Gazzar's friends as well as Grigorios Tassiopoulos, consul general of Greece's Consulate General in Guangzhou, and Li Jingdong, director of the organ donation office of the Guangdong Branch of the Red Cross Society of China.

On Thursday evening in Zhujiang Hospital, Gazzar's kidneys were respectively transplanted to a 50-year-old man who suffered from serious uremia and a 30 year-old woman who had renal failure.

At the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, his liver was transplanted to a 46-year-old hepatitis B patient who had serious hepatic failure, while his heart was transplanted to an unnamed patient.

"The Chinese patients are in stable condition and are recovering in wards after the organ transplantation surgeries," Zhao Ming, a professor from the Zhujiang Hospital, told local media on Friday.

Gazzar is the 10th foreign organ donor in the mainland.