CINCINNATI — A young Ohio man’s fatal auto accident has helped at least seven other people.

The family of 22-year-old Richard Wieland Jr. says when the Cincinnati area man left last summer for Army National Guard basic training, he asked never to be put on life support and that his organs be donated if something serious happened.

He suffered severe brain injury when he wrecked his car early Saturday in a suburb west of Cincinnati. His body parts were used to help others: his heart went to New York, his lungs, liver, pancreas and one kidney went to help others in Ohio, and the other kidney went to Washington. Tissue and other parts also are being used.

His parents tell The Cincinnati Enquirer Wieland is a hero, just as if he had died saving another in combat.