Baek Se-hee dies at 35: South Korean author gave new life to 5 people, donated organs before death
Baek Se-hee has donated her heart, lungs, liver, and both kidneys, saving five lives.
Baek Se-hee, the South Korean author of the best-selling memoir ‘I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’, has died at the age of 35. Despite her book selling more than million copies world wide, she continues to give back to society after her death through organ donation.
Baek has donated her heart, lungs, liver, and both kidneys, saving five lives, according to the Korea Organ Donation Agency, cited by The Guardian.
According to another report in The Telegraph India, the organs were recovered at the National Health Insurance Service Ilsan hospital in Gyeonggi Province, north of Seoul—the same hospital where she was born. Baek was declared brain-dead on October 16, the agency confirmed, the report added.
Early life and career
Born in 1990, Baek studied creative writing at university before working for five years in a publishing house.
According to her Bloomsbury Publishing biography, she had lived with her rescue dog, Jaram, and had a long-standing treatment history for dysthymia.
She had undergone psychiatric treatment for 10 years for dysthymia, a mild but long-lasting form of depression. The idea for her memoir emerged after she shared therapy notes on a blog and received positive feedback.
Memoirs address mental health
Baek’s memoir I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, published in 2018 in Korea and in 2022 in the UK by Bloomsbury, is based on her conversations with her psychiatrist about dysthymia, a persistent form of depression.
The book combines these dialogues with mini essays. A follow-up, I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, was released in the UK last year.
The memoir, named after Baek’s favourite food, tteokbokki—a Korean dish of rice cakes in a spicy sauce—has sold around 600,000 copies in Korea and over a million copies worldwide. It has been published in more than 25 countries.
