"Any organ that can save the life of another person, just use it. ”
In 2017, after Lou Tao, a female doctor from Peking University, was diagnosed with "ALS", she dictated her next will when she was sober, which attracted countless netizens.
In order to help medicine overcome the problem of "ALS" as soon as possible, she also strongly requested that she leave her head to medical experts for research after leaving, so that more patients can get rid of their pain.
Sadly, after battling the disease for two years, she is still gone forever, and her wish to donate her organs has not been fulfilled.
So, what touching stories have happened to this "frozen angel"?
The unexpected came suddenly
In August 2015, Lou Tao, who returned to Enshi, Hubei Province for the summer vacation, often felt weak inexplicably, especially when he went up the steps, his legs and feet were particularly weak.
At that time, her mother Wang Yanmei also laughed at this baby daughter, "You are too squeamish." And Lou Tao himself didn't take the abnormality of his body too seriously.
After all, before this, her body had been very healthy, and she could run more than a dozen laps in one breath on the 400-meter track, and she often swam well, even planks.
After returning to school in October, Lou Tao's physical fatigue did not go away. Until one day, her left foot suddenly couldn't stand on tiptoe and didn't listen to the call.
At first, she thought it was a problem with the cervical or lumbar spine, affecting the nerves in her legs. However, after treatment in many hospitals, there is still no improvement.
After that, her condition continued to deteriorate and she began to have difficulty lifting her right arm.
In January 2016, after a series of neurology examinations, Lou Tao was diagnosed with "motor neuron disease", which is what we call "ALS", by many hospitals.
As a neurological disorder, it causes muscle control and initial symptoms include muscle twitching in the arms or legs, difficulty swallowing, and slurred speech.
The disease causes motor neurons to degenerate and stop sending messages to muscles, causing them to not function properly, including the loss of the ability to breathe on their own.
Because of this, the most common cause of death in ALS patients is respiratory failure.
What's even more terrifying is that once you have it, there is no possibility of cure, and compared with cancer, ALS is a terminal disease, and the exact cause is unknown.
Faced with this sudden illness, Lou Tao and his family felt unbelievable, especially Wang Yanmei and her husband Lou Gongyu, who only felt that the sky had fallen.
But Lou Tao, who has always been strong and optimistic, decided to face it positively after calming down, and always comforted his parents.
However, due to the lack of mature treatment options, her condition took a sharp turn for the worse.
In June 2016, she completely lost the mobility of her limbs and was dependent on her family to take care of her daily life.
Obviously, not long ago, she was still writing with a pen and returning to her classmates' WeChat, but in a blink of an eye, her legs couldn't stand and her hands couldn't hold the pen. It's only been half a year.
At that time, conservative treatment with medication had little effect, and the doctor recommended a more effective option to Lou Tao, but it was also much more expensive.
But she decisively refused. Because I know that no matter how much money I spend, it will be in vain. And the family is not rich, and her parents have limited income, so she doesn't want them to be burdened.
Not only that, in order not to disturb her boyfriend, she insisted on breaking up with him, and politely declined the visit of teachers and classmates.
She hopes that what will remain in everyone's hearts is still the girl who is healthy and loves to laugh.
Organ donation
In October 2016, Lou Tao was transferred back to a local hospital in Enshi, where she continued to receive conservative treatment, and her condition continued to deteriorate day by day.
By the end of the year, she was completely paralyzed and even had difficulty breathing.
In January 2017, Lou Tao fell into a deep coma due to a lack of oxygen to his brain and was admitted to the intensive care unit. Since then, she has been on a ventilator to stay alive.
Although the torture of the disease has not lost a single point, she is still positive and optimistic. At the same time, I also made a major decision in my heart, which is to donate organs.
While he was sober, Lou Tao on the sickbed asked the nurse to write it and left a will in the form of dictation.
In it, she mentioned that she hoped that after she left, she would be able to donate her head for medical research.
To briefly explain here, the reason for donating a head is that the cause of ALS is unknown, and it is not possible to study tissue samples from patients before death or on living organisms.
After the death of the patient, the donated brain tissue is the most important object of study. Like Cai Lei, a person with ALS, he also announced in September 2022 that he would donate his brain after his death.
As for other organs, Lou Tao said: "Whoever saves the lives of others, just use it." ”
After this will was reported by the media, it touched countless netizens, and many people reached out to help her and raised more than 1 million yuan for her.
During this period, in order to get her father to agree to donate her organs, she even chose such a drastic method as a hunger strike.
Although Wang Yanmei and his wife were a little reluctant, they still decided to meet their daughter's request.
In the early morning of October 9, they signed their daughter's name on the human organ donation registration form, in accordance with her wishes.
But unfortunately, due to an infection in her body, her organs did not meet the donation criteria, and after Lou Tao's death, she was unable to fulfill her last wish.
On October 19, an organization in Shanghai installed an "eye tracker" for Lou Tao, which allows her to express her thoughts by moving her eyes, even though she cannot open her mouth to speak.
According to her father, Lou Gongyu, at that time, her daughter repeatedly signaled that she wanted to drink soup, but she was no longer able to eat.
Even the most basic needs such as food cannot be guaranteed, which is enough to see the great suffering of ALS patients.
In general, ALS does not affect sensory abilities such as touch, smell, hearing, etc.
During his hospitalization, Lou Tao relied on audiobooks and insisted on listening to more than 60 books on his hospital bed. Most of these are books related to the history major.
"I was finally admitted to Peking University, but I got this disease and couldn't make a difference, which is really unwilling. At the beginning of his diagnosis, Lou Tao often said this.
Indeed, her life should have been colorful and her future was bright, but an illness "froze" all this.
A life that is "frozen".
Lou Tao has been a "child of other people" since he was a child, smart and studious, with excellent grades.
In 2007, during the college entrance examination, she was admitted to the History Department of Minzu University of China with excellent results.
Because of her bold personality, she dares to speak and do, like a boy, and her classmates call her "Brother Tao".
"She is everyone's pistachio everywhere, she is very popular, she is very righteous to her friends, and she attaches great importance to feelings. As long as she asks her for help, she will basically agree. Her classmates commented.
And her cheerful and sunny personality, even if she has not been contacted, is enough to feel in the photos she left, and her smile can be seen in almost every photo.
Whether she's sitting on the lawn in jeans or in a hospital bed, she's smiling.
In 2012, she was sent to Beijing Normal University to study Egyptology in Ancient World History.
This major is particularly difficult, esoteric and difficult to understand, and it also requires the study of ancient characters and modern foreign languages, which is daunting for most students.
But Lou Tao was obsessed with it. During her graduate studies, she ranked first in her grades and also won a first-class scholarship.
He also translated a foreign language document on ancient Egyptian coins and published it in a core journal.
This article is particularly difficult to translate, covering Egyptian, Greek, and German, but Lou Tao has done an excellent job. The mentor said.
In 2015, 28-year-old Lou Tao was admitted to the coveted Peking University with the first place in the written examination and interview, becoming a doctoral student in the Department of History, and continued to study ancient Egyptian history.
At that time, she was full of joy and full of expectations for the future. Her life plan is to become a teacher in the future.
As the only daughter in the family, Lou Tao also plans to live with her parents in the future: the family will live in a city and often eat with her parents.
However, the sudden onset of ALS shattered all expectations.
The "Angel" Who Left the World
During the long and torturous treatment phase, Lou Tao was also mentally tormented, and she sometimes said through the eye tracker, "I don't want to be treated." ”
Sometimes I change my mind and say, "I'm going to stick with the treatment." Behind the repeated changes, all reveal the depth of the pain she has endured.
In January 2018, Lou Tao's condition had deteriorated to the point where he could not recover.
From 2016 to 2018, she spent almost two full years in the hospital. Until the last moment of her life, she desperately wanted to return to the home she knew best.
The grief-stricken Wang Yanmei and his wife, looking at their dying daughter, decided to take her home.
On the evening of January 4, his family was by Lou Tao's side. At that time, her trachea was removed due to the need to use a ventilator, and it was very difficult for her to speak.
"Take care of my mom". She struggled to spit out the words with all her might. The people present suddenly burst into tears.
In the early morning of January 5, 2018, Lou Tao stopped breathing and went to another world.
And when she was dying, there was helplessness, regret, and reluctance in her eyes. After all, she is only 29 years old, and she is in the prime of life, and there are still many things to do.
According to Lou Tao's last wishes, her future affairs were simple, there was no memorial service, and even the ashes were not buried, but scattered into the rivers of Enshi.
"Please scatter the ashes into the Yangtze River and don't bring any burden to this society. The will reads.
Her mother, Wang Yanmei, said: "The ashes flow away with the water, just like a daughter has gained eternal life. ”
epilogue
Lou Tao mentioned in his suicide note that the meaning of life does not lie in the length of life, but in the quality and thickness of life.
She also did live out the quality and thickness of her life.
Illness imprisoned her body, but her soul was free.
May Heaven be free from sickness.
Bibliography:
1. Baidu Encyclopedia: Lou Tao
2. Beijing News "Peking University's "ALS Female Doctor" Passed Away: I Want to Leave the Best to the World"
3. Beijing Morning Post "Peking University's "ALS Female Doctor" Lou Tao Passed Away and Failed to Donate Organs as Wished"
4. Xinhuanet ""Frozen Angel" Lou Tao Stays in the World Forever with Another Attitude