Latest news with #COTRS
South China Morning Post
27-05-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Legal obstacles stymie mechanism on organ donation between Hong Kong, mainland China
Legal hurdles remain a reason why a proposed regular mechanism on organ donation between Hong Kong and mainland China has yet to materialise since discussions started in 2022, according to a top health official from the country. Wang Haibo, director of the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS), told the Post on the sidelines of the Hospital Authority Convention on Tuesday that it would take time to revise laws on the mainland to spur the establishment of the mechanism. 'There is a legal hurdle for that,' Wang said. 'We have the HIV regulation. We ban [the transfer of] organs across the border.' 'Organ, blood and tissue … cannot [be transferred] across the border.' COTRS is a national system which allocates organs for transplants throughout the country. Wang said that the specific law that stymied the development of the cross-border mechanism was related to controls to prevent the spread of HIV.
South China Morning Post
20-02-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
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.
