A 40-year-old patient was the recipient of corneas from the world's youngest cornea donor, a 12-day-old boy, Sunday.

The boy became the world's youngest cornea donor after dying from innate heart disease only 12 days after birth.

The boy was born June 18 at a hospital in Longgang District and transferred to an Intensive Care Unit the second day with a serious heart defect. The boy stayed there for 10 days and was sent to Shenzhen People's Hospital. Doctors found the boy's ventricles were in different sizes and said he had a slim chance of surviving.

The boy died Thursday afternoon. Many shared the parents' grief. "His eyes were so bright and lovely and resembled his mother's," said a friend of the boy's father. The father then thought of donating his son's corneas to commemorate the boy by helping others. He contacted ophthalmologist Yao Xiaoming. Yao said the boy's corneas were in good conditions, but could only be transplanted into a patient whose corneas were partly damaged because of the donor's young age.

(Shenzhen Daily July 4, 2005)