2016 Charles Cao

CHARLES CAO

Organ Donor

Age 6 ~ Alhambra, CA

Donated on 07/11/01

at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center

Honored by tzuchi.us

Charles was born with a condition called Craniometaphyseal Dysplasia which causes a skull bone overgrowth.  This condition can lead to problems with vision, hearing, and breathing.  Due to his condition, Charles was constantly visiting the doctor for treatment, sometimes 4 times a week. However, he never complained.  He grew to be a smart and happy boy who liked to study.  Charles was ambitious and friendly to anyone who knew him. He lived to be six years old.  When he passed away, his family decided to donate his organs as a way to keep Charles alive.  Through the donation process Charles saved three lives.

Charle’s Story
Charles was born with a condition called craniometaphyseal dysplasia which causes skull bone overgrowth.  This caused a great deal of problems for Charles including vision, hearing, and breathing problems.  He was in the NICU for more than three weeks after surgery to open his airways and when we brought him home, he still needed the help of a feeding tube and nasal stand.

We went to the UCLA clinics almost every week during the first year.  Some weeks we went to the doctors four times looking for treatments to cure Charles’ condition.  In his whole life, six years nine months and ten days, we had seen the doctor near to a thousand times, but we couldn’t save his life.  The night he passed away, we were contacted by a liaison from OneLegacy.  We had actually thought about donating Charles’ organs before we were contacted by the organization.  It was the only way to keep part of our son alive and, at the same time, save other people’s lives.  Charles’ liver, kidney, and pancreas were donated.  He saved three people.

Charles was a smart and happy boy.  He liked to study.  We remember he always did twice as much homework than he was assigned even with his braille typewriter.   As soon as he learned the Z letter, he started to type all 26 letters in reverse order without anyone teaching him.  He was very friendly to everybody, even strangers.  He had never complained of his handicap, refused to take his medicine, or have his blood drawn.  We always think about Charles, we believe that Charles had his own mission coming in to this world. We believe he completed that mission.  We are so proud of Charles and we will always miss him.