NTU student who died in Europe freak accident wanted his organs donated

SINGAPORE — A desire to fulfil the last wishes of Justin Tan Honng Tze – a Nanyang Technological University (NTU) undergraduate who died in an accident in Slovakia – was what prompted his family to donate his heart, liver and kidneys to four patients in Slovakia.

In a statement issued by NTU on Tuesday (Dec 6) morning, Justin’s father, Mr Mitchel Tan, said a year before his death, his son had told him and his brother that he would “without fail donate his organs upon his passing”.

Given the challenges in transporting his son’s organs back to Singapore for donation, Mr Tan decided to just go ahead with the organ donation in Slovakia since the local doctors “can do the transplants immediately”. He said: “I believe that Justin had been (in Slovakia) for a reason.”

His family also added: “We know that a part of him continues to live in the bodies of four other people. We hope that Justin’s gift to them will inspire them to live fully and with the same positive spirit that our precious son has always had.”

Tan, a third-year mechanical engineering student, was on exchange in the Czech Republic at the VSB – Technical University Ostrava.

On Nov 19, en route to a ski resort in neighbouring Slovakia, the active mountaineer and avid sport-climber sustained severe head injury when the car he was driving was struck by a tree during a storm. He died on Nov 25.

Tan was fondly remembered by his friends and teachers as an outgoing man with a passion for adventure.

Said fellow mechanical engineering undergraduate Tan Choon Yong, who got to know the deceased on exchange: “He often shared with us all his adventures, whenever he returned from a trip…. I believe Justin lived his life to the fullest and had zero regrets. Justin may be gone, but he will never be forgotten. Somewhere in Slovakia, his heart is still beating.”

Eighteen classmates he met in Czech Republic made the six-hour 400km journey through a storm to see him for the last time in the Slovakia hospital he was in — an act which “speaks volumes of the kind of positive energy Justin had always had on his friends”, said NTU engineering professor Ooi Kim Tiow.

The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering will hold a memorial service for Tan in January, while NTU will continue to offer counselling care to his family and schoolmates.

“My son Justin taught me so much about life. Son, you have graduated, and your pa is still studying and has a long way to go… I hope Justin’s life will be an inspiration to all those whose lives he had touched. Always be determined to be the best that you can be and never admit defeat,” said his father.