South Korean Choi dies from head injuries
SEOUL: South Korean boxer Choi Yo-sam, who fell into a coma after winning his WBO intercontinental flyweight title fight last week, was declared officially dead early Thursday, a hospital spokesman said.
The declaration was made at 12:18 a.m. (15:18 GMT Wednesday) as doctors stopped the flow of blood to Choi's heart and took him off life support, said Shin Dae-sung, a spokesman at Asan Hospital in Seoul, which had received approval from Choi's family.
His heart, liver, both kidneys and both corneas were removed for donation to six patients awaiting transplants, Shin said. Doctors were required to get approval from the prosecutors' office before the organs could be removed.
A hospital committee had pronounced Choi brain-dead Wednesday after conducting a series of tests. He had been in a coma since shortly after winning the fight against Indonesian challenger Heri Amol in Seoul on December 25.
The 33-year-old South Korean, a former world champion, was knocked down just before the end of the 12th and final round of the bout but got back up and was declared the winner on points before collapsing.
"He has lived a hard life," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Oh Soon-hui, Choi's 65-year-old mother, as saying Wednesday after the declaration of brain death. "I hope he has gone to a peaceful place."
Choi was the WBC light flyweight world champion from October 1999 to July 2002, and fought for the WBA light flyweight world title in September 2004.
South Korea's boxing commission had no comment.
In 1982, South Korean lightweight Kim Duk-koo died four days after being knocked out by Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini in a WBA lightweight world title fight in Las Vegas. Kim was knocked out in the 14th round, prompting the WBC to reduce the length of its bouts from 15 to 12 rounds, with the other major sanctioning bodies following later.
Another South Korean fighter, bantamweight Lee Tong-choon, died of acute swelling of the brain in 1995, four days after losing consciousness following a Japanese title fight against Setsuo Kawamasu in Tokyo.
Agencies
(China Daily 01/04/2008 page24)
