The final tribute
QEH Honor Walk
Queen Elizabeth Hospital
Along the bustling corridor, family members and the medical team stand in silence, lining the path to pay a final, profound tribute to a donor escorting into the operating theatre for transplantation. The QEH Honor Walk Team, the first of its kind in public hospitals, joins the family of donors alongside healthcare professionals, to accompany these heroes on their final journey.
The Team says, "this profound act of love deserves the highest respect." The Honor Walk is far more than a ceremony, it also helps soothe the pain of the families. One widow shared that despite the deep pain of losing her husband, the ceremony brought her an incredible sense of peace. A donor's mother remarked that her son had been ‘wasteful' during his life, but ‘this time (donating his organs) was his least wasteful act of all,' an affirmation of his selfless love. For another donor who was unmarried, his partner was not allowed to handle his affairs. The Honor Walk brought her a sense of completion to their journey together.
As the pioneer of this initiative in Hong Kong, the Team admits that the process was challenging, not only because of the traditional social taboos, but also the environmental constraints. Hospital corridors are narrow, and the route from the ward to the operating theatre often weaves through busy public areas. To minimise the disturbance to clinical operations and other patients, various departments including the Intensive Care Unit, the Department of Neurosurgery, nursing, operating theatre, the transplant team, security and the foreman's office, had to coordinate at short notice. The success of the Honor Walk is a testament to the Team's meticulous preparations and a strong, bottom-up spirit of collaboration.
To date, the Team has held four Honor Walk ceremonies, continuously refining the process each time. Looking ahead, the Team hopes more colleagues embrace the profound meaning of this ceremony and participate, eventually extending the practice to more hospitals and across society. The Team looks forward to the opening of Kai Tak Hospital, where better facilities will help sustain this tribute to life and spread the message of organ donation even further.
