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Teen attempts suicide to donate liver to father

By Wang Jianfen (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-02-05 09:24

A 13-year-old girl remained in critical condition Wednesday, 11 days after she swallowed 200 sleeping pills in a misguided attempt to kill herself in order to donate her liver to her father who is battling terminal liver cancer, reported a newspaper in Nanjing, the provincial capital of Jiangsu province.

Her mother found the girl lying motionless in bed at her home in Wuxi of Jiangsu at noon of January 24, two days before Chinese Lunar New Year. Beside her were a suicide note and two empty bottles that had contained 200 pills.

"Mom, I am sorry that I could not be with you anymore. Please give my liver to father after I die," Lin Lin, the pseudo name for the middle school student, wrote in the suicide note, according to the Modern Express.

The suicide note in Chinese reads: 'Mom, I am sorry that I could not be with you anymore. Please give my liver to father after I die.' [Modern Express]

The father was diagnosed with liver cancer last December and doctors said he would only live for a few more months. Lin Lin was unaware of this until she saw the certificate of the diagnosis in her mother's handbag in January.

Seeing daughter unconscious, the miserable mother felt faint and dizzy, after having just returned from visiting her husband in the hospital. "More than 10 hours have passed since my daughter had supper at the hospital shortly after 5 p.m., January 23," she told the newspaper, suggesteing that the daughter might have taken the pills more than 10 hours ago.

Lin Lin lies in bed at the hospital and remains in critical condition Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009. [Modern Express]

Lin Lin was rushed to Wuxi People's Hospital where she received emergency treatment. Four days later she became conscious, but fell in and out of consciousness from time to time. She remains in critical condition now and requires intensive care, the newspaper said Wednesday.

Although he in the same hospital, the father does not know what happened.