South Korean man from Busan donates five organs after brain death
A 41-year-old man from Busan donated five organs after being declared brain dead, giving new life to five recipients. Park Seong-bae’s heart, lungs, a liver, and both kidneys were transplanted on January 30 at Dong-A University Hospital in Busan. He left behind his wife and their newborn daughter, who is about 60 days old.
Park suffered a sudden severe headache while sleeping on January 19 and was rushed to the hospital. Despite active treatment, medical staff could not restore his consciousness, and he was pronounced brain dead.
His family decided to proceed with organ donation after doctors explained there was little chance of recovery. They chose to help others in need, hoping their daughter would remember her father as someone who made a noble, life-saving choice.
Park was the eldest of two children, born in Busan. Neighbors and colleagues described him as warm and considerate, a man who looked out for others. A former physical education major, he worked at a shipyard and enjoyed weekend soccer with friends, while also caring for his wife and daughter after work.
His wife, Im Hyun-jeong, said in a message to the public that they should not worry. “I will love and raise our daughter to the best of my ability,” she said, adding that if they meet again someday, Park should tell her, “You did well,” and that she misses him and loves him deeply.
The donation was coordinated through the Korea Organ Donation Agency (KODA), the national body that oversees organ and tissue donation in Korea. The agency’s involvement and the hospital’s transplant activity highlight Korea’s brain-death-based donation system and the role of families in consent decisions.
For U.S. readers, the case illustrates how a coordinated national donation network can save multiple lives from a single donor and the personal dimensions that drive families to donate. In the United States, organ allocation is managed by UNOS, but the underlying dynamics—medical determination of brain death, consent, and the impact on recipients and families—are common to both systems. The story underscores ongoing policy and cultural conversations about improving donation rates, end-of-life care, and the resilience of medical supply chains that rely on organ donation.