Ryan’s Hope

by Nancy Lee Doige

烏蕪 譯

Ryan’s Hope

賴安的希望

by Nancy Lee Doige

烏蕪 譯

施與有時候也是一種收獲，在人死后把身體器官捐贈出去不僅能使自己的生命更有意義，也許還能為自己在世的親人帶來一絲慰藉。

The day started out normally enough. Ryan was upstairs preparing to leave for school, while his sixyear-old sister, Jamie, waited for him at the front door.

At ten years old, Ryan loved knowledge and seemed to have an abundance of it, far beyond his years. When he was in frst grade, the children in his class were asked to draw a picture and answer the question, “If you could be anyone, who would you be?” Ryan wrote: “If I could be anyone, I’d want to be God.” At age seven, while sitting in church one day, he wrote:

The tree of Life, O, the tree of Glory

The tree of God of the World, O, the tree of me

Suddenly, Ryan called out that he had a headache. I went upstairs and found him lying on his bed. By the time we arrived at the hospital he was unconscious. We stood by helplessly as the doctors fought to save his life.

那天，一切都開始得很平常。賴安在樓上收拾東西，準(zhǔn)備去上學(xué)，而他六歲的妹妹潔米則在門口等他。

年僅十歲，賴安熱愛知識，學(xué)識似乎也頗為豐富，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超過了他這個年紀(jì)。在他讀一年級的時候，老師要求班上的孩子畫一幅畫并回答這個問題：“如果你可以做任何人，你想做誰？”賴安寫道：“如果我可以做任何人，我想做上帝。”在他七歲時，有一天，他坐在教堂里，寫道：

生命之樹，噢，光榮之樹

世界之神之樹，噢，吾之樹

突然，賴安大喊頭痛。我走上樓，發(fā)現(xiàn)他倒在了床上。當(dāng)我們到達醫(yī)院時，他已經(jīng)不省人事。醫(yī)生在全力挽救他的生命，而我們眼見一切，無能為力。

A couple of hours later we were finally allowed to see him. He was hooked up to a life support system. When the doctor told us our son had suffered a massive1)cerebral2)haemorrhageand was “l(fā)egally and clinically brain dead,” it felt like a terrible nightmare. We went into shock. Nothing more could be done, the doctor said, and asked if we would consider organ donation. Astonishingly, we had discussed this with Ryan only recently. We looked at each other and simultaneously replied, “Oh yes, Ryan would have wanted that.”

In April, Ryan had seen his dad filling out the organ donor card on the back of his driver’s license. His dad had explained to him about organ donation and how you could help save another’s life by agreeing to donate your organs when you die.

Organ donation made such perfect sense to Ryan, he went on his own campaign persuading the entire family to sign donor cards. We had no doubt that donating Ryan’s organs was the right thing to do.

Then, on a beautiful morning four months after Ryan’s death, the first letter arrived, addressed to my husband and me. As we read it, we both began to weep. It was from a twentyyear-old university student thanking us for our “gift of sight.” He had received one of Ryan’s3)corneasand could now see again. It is difficult to describe our emotions—we wept, but at the same time, we felt wonderful.

Sometime later we received a second letter from a young woman of thirty who had received one of Ryan’s kidneys and his4)pancreas. She’d had diabetes since she was fve, spending much of her recent years hooked up to a5)dialysismachine. She told us that because of Ryan, she was now free from6)insulinand dialysis, able to work again and return to a normal life.

數(shù)小時后，我們終于得到了允許，可以進去看他。他身上連接著生命維持系統(tǒng)。醫(yī)生告訴我們，我們兒子的腦部大量出血，已經(jīng)“在法律上和臨床上被判定為腦死亡”，那時的感覺就像置身一個恐怖的噩夢當(dāng)中。我們深受打擊。醫(yī)生說已經(jīng)盡力了，并詢問我們要不要考慮器官捐贈。令人詫異的是，我們最近才和賴安討論過這個問題。我們看著彼此，異口同聲地回答道：“噢，要，賴安會希望這樣做的。”

四月的時候，賴安看到他爸爸在駕照的背后填寫器官捐贈卡。他爸爸給他解釋了器官捐贈的事，告訴他，人死后如何能夠通過同意把自己的器官捐贈出去而挽救其他人的生命。……