ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610280161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: YOKOSUKA, JAPAN
SOURCE: MARY JORDAN THE WASHINGTON POST
THE FAMILY OF A 5-YEAR-OLD who had a passion for things Japanese is consoled by the impact his death - and organ donation - have had.
Alex Van Cleave, 5, arrived here in August, thrilled about swapping American highways for Japanese bullet trains and American football for Japanese sumo.
The little blond-haired boy climbed inside giant Buddhas near Tokyo, quickly picked up the language and relished the mastery of each new sentence.
But five weeks after he arrived, he stepped off the school bus into a rainy Monday morning and somehow fell in front of the school door. Though he had only the tiniest abrasion on his chin, the freak fall damaged his brain stem, and after a second or two of crying out, he was unconscious. He never woke up.
``On Monday he was fine. On Friday he was dead,'' said his father, U.S. Navy Cmdr. William Van Cleave, who is stationed at the Yokosuka U.S. Naval Base, where the accident occurred.
As Alex's family begins to cope with the loss, there is an unexpected consolation: Their little boy has become a hero in Japan. His kidneys were transplanted to two Japanese youths, one 9, the other 19, saving their lives. And his case has advanced a movement to use American donor organs from U.S. military hospitals to pressure, if not embarrass, the Japanese government into legalizing heart, liver and other transplant operations that are now banned.
Last week, a group of 4,000 Japanese doctors, fed up with the refusal of Japanese lawmakers to permit surgeons to take organs from brain-dead patients, announced an imminent agreement with U.S. military hospitals here that would make cases like Alex's the rule, rather than the exception.
``It would be wrong to let things stay as they are,'' said Dr. Kikuo Nomoto, director general of the Japan Society for Transplantation. He said the medical community is in ``deep despair'' because so many people are dying from the lack of operations routinely available in other countries.
Japan stands apart from virtually every other advanced country with its refusal to legally recognize brain death. That effectively bans heart transplants, and most liver and lung transplants, which require a donor whose heart is still beating. The age-old definition of death - a stopped heart - is still the legal definition of death in Japan, so no transplantable heart is ever available.
Most organs are perishable and would not survive long journeys. A heart lasts only a few hours, so, for example, Alex's heart could not have been taken to the United States for transplanting.
``It is very nice that something good has come out of something so awful,'' said Ann Van Cleave, who was born in Portsmouth, Va. ``He loved Japan so much, it's a special thing that a little bit of him is left here.''
Alex's case has helped heal another wound, too. The U.S. military's image in Japan was seriously damaged last year when three servicemen on Okinawa were convicted in the rape of a 12-year-old girl. But following Alex's death and organ donation, there has been an outpouring of affection and gratitude from the Japanese public.
LENGTH: Medium: 62 linesby CNB