Dedicated network ensures success of organ transplants

The 24-hour standby organ donation, transportation and transplant network of Shanghai's Renji Hospital ensured the success of two liver transplant surgeries during the Spring Festival, the hospital announced on Saturday.

One patient with liver cancer, and one child with Niemann-Pick disease, a rare illness, benefited from the network.

Dr Zhang Jiaxu received a call in the small hours on Wednesday, when he was informed there was an opportunity to harvest a liver in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province.

He rushed to the hospital to collect a special human organ transportation box at 4:30am and took the earliest airplane to Guangzhou at 7:40am. He removed the liver at 10:30am and took the plane back to Shanghai at noon.

The liver arrived at the surgery room at 3pm and was transplanted into a liver cancer patient surnamed Li. He has recovered from surgery and is now in an ordinary ward.

Dr Zhang Jiang, of the hospital's liver surgery department, received a call at 11:20am on Thursday, informing him that the organs of a child in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province were available. The liver matched that of a 10-year-old girl with Niemann-Pick disease, a genetic disease causing liver failure and other problems.

He rushed to the hospital and took the only airplane on the day to Nancheng. After arriving in Nanchang, he was informed that the organ harvesting surgery had been postponed to the next day.

He took the donated liver back to Shanghai and arrived at Renji's surgery room at 5:30pm on Friday, when the hospital's first pediatric liver transplant surgery in the Year of the Tiger was carried out smoothly.

Doctors said the liver transplant is an important step for the girl's treatment, and follow-up therapy will conducted gradually.

Dr Zhang Jiaxu and Dr Zhang Jiang are members of Renji Hospital's organ harvest team, which transported more than 100 livers in the past year.

Dr Zhu Jianjun, who flew more than 120 times in 2021, has performed the largest number of organ transportation in the team.

"My job is extremely meaningful," he said. "I am running for life and the box has the hope of each family."