Keep the Hong Kong-mainland China border open for organ donations
Published: 6:30am, 21 Feb 2025
Miraculous was the word used by the parents of Whitney Cheung after their baby received Hong Kong's second organ donation from mainland China. That the life-saving heart transplant went so smoothly is a welcome reflection of the success of a communication channel set up after the first cross-border case in 2022.
The eight-month-old baby girl received her heart on Sunday in an operation that took around 6½ hours.
It took less than half that time for the organ to be delivered across the border. The surgical team at Hong Kong Children's Hospital had the heart only two hours and 18 minutes after mainland doctors started operating on the donor.
The transfer happened an hour faster than expected, but it had been an agonising wait for Whitney's parents, who first made a public appeal for a donor last October. In September, she was moved to the top of the city's heart transplant list. Whitney's parents had first made a public appeal for a donor last October. In September, the baby was moved up to the top of the city's heart transplant list. Photo: Handout
Fortunately, she was later added to the second-tier waiting list of the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS). The national database set up in 2013 records donors, available organs and patients awaiting transplants.
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