Touching story: 18-year-old Chinese boy commits suicide in order to save brother’s life

Ultimate sacrifice: As a result of his elder brother's death, Honghui (pictured), 23, successfully had a kidney transplant and doctors say he will live

18-year-old Chinese boy committed  suicide to save his brother. Hongtao Gao, 18, and brother  Honghui, 20 both got kidney failure in 2010 leaving parents to scrabble for funds for treatment. 

Hongtao  took his life by drinking pesticide for parents to raise funds to treat his brother


Daily Mail reports:

 Unable to afford the mounting medical bills, their parents, Chuanyou and wife Zheng Tingxia, sold almost everything they owned in search of two matching kidneys to save their son’s lives.

Then, as time was beginning to run out, Hongtao locked himself in his room and drank pesticide, dying an agonising death.In a heart-rending gesture of brotherly love, his body was found by a note, which included the words: ‘Brother, when you are cured, please tell me and it will be enough for me.Up until summer 2010 life was good for Gao Chuanyou, his wife Zheng Tingxia and their two sons.Both boys were at the top of their class in school and the future seemed bright as they put the finishing touches to the new house in the county of Funan in Anhui province in the central of China.But then disaster struck when the eldest, Honghui, after a month of illness was diagnosed with uremia.Doctors told his parents that only a kidney transplant could save their son’s life. But then, just as they were coming to terms with this disaster, Hongtao was diagnosed with the same condition.

Grief: Mother Zheng Tingxia lays flowers at her son’s grave. His death prompted a flurry of donations, and after a two-year search, a match was found for his brother

The boys’ father sold everything they had including their brand-new, almost-finished house and borrowed heavily travelling around the country to various medical institutes in a bid to find a solution.When the money ran out, teachers and friends of the two boys managed to raise another £10,000 for further treatment. But it was not enough.Doctors had hoped that a transplant from the parents might be suitable but the boys’ father was not the right tissue match, while their mother fell seriously ill when she learned of her son’s condition rendering her inadmissible as a donor.

His selfless act made headline across China and donations flooded in. Then, at the end of last year, after a two-year search, a match was found.Honghui, now 23, has successfully undergone a kidney transplant and is expected to make a full recovery.But for dad Gao Chuanyou, 44, it is a bittersweet moment. He told local media: ‘I wonder perhaps how we can afford to be happy with Gao Hongtao, but we will take it one step at a time.’