Early in the morning of September 25, the Tissue Bank - Hanoi Eye Hospital 2 received a phone call informing that the son wanted to donate his mother's cornea to bring light to the blind.

Immediately, the Tissue Bank team started up and quickly moved to the site to collect the cornea.

The cornea donor was Captain Le Thi Hong Minh, a former employee of the Pharmacy Department at Military Hospital 103, 75 years old. She passed away at 5:18 a.m. on September 25. The person who called the Tissue Bank, expressing his wish to donate his mother's cornea was Dr. Nguyen Le Trung, Deputy Head of the Ophthalmology Department, Military Hospital 103.

The Tissue Bank staff shared that during the entire collection process, the mother's son just stood quietly observing from a corner of the room. Only when the technicians had finished removing the cornea did the son come closer, put his hand on his mother's hair, then hugged her and burst into tears... He hugged his mother for the last time after donating her cornea to bring light to others.

Dr. Nguyen Le Trung, Deputy Head of the Ophthalmology Department, Military Hospital 103, endured his grief to fulfill his mother's last wish.

Before her death, Captain Le Thi Hong Minh, a former pharmacy employee at Military Hospital 103, expressed her wish to donate her corneas to help blind patients. Her son, an ophthalmologist, suppressed his grief over the loss of his mother to fulfill this noble wish.

Captain Minh's corneas were successfully transplanted into two patients, at two different hospitals.

According to statistics, in Vietnam there are more than 30,000 people who are blind due to corneal diseases, they need corneal transplant surgery to regain their sight.