4-Month-Old Hong Kong Girl Receives Infant Heart Transplant From Mainland China

Only took one month from donation request to transplant

Faculty of the Hong Kong Children's Hospital hold a press conference on Dec. 17, 2022, saying that the hospital performed a successful heart transplant for Cleo Lai Tsz-hei, a 4-month-old baby, and the heart came from a donor in mainland China. (Cai Wenxin /The Epoch Times)

Cleo Lai Tsz-hei, a 4-month-old girl in Hong Kong suffering from heart failure, underwent an organ transplant with a heart from mainland China on Dec. 17, 2022. The baby is currently recovering in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Believed to be the first-ever organ sent from the mainland to Hong Kong for a transplant, hospital officials did not answer questions about how they ensured the legitimacy of the source of an organ from mainland China.

One Month From Appeal to Transplant

Last month, Cleo’s mother and doctor appealed for a organ donor for Cleo, who suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy and acute heart failure. Dilated cardiomyopathy is a disease in which the heart chambers (ventricles) thin, stretch, enlarge, and make it difficult for the heart to pump blood.

Dr. Simon Tang Yiu-hang, Director of Cluster Services of the Hospital Authority, said that it was difficult to find a suitable heart in Hong Kong for such a young baby, so he contacted the National Health Commission of China to help find a matching heart.

He said the heart donor was a child from mainland China who suffered brainstem death after an accidental head injury. The organ was ABO-type compatible and histocompatible for Cleo, so he requested the heart to be shipped to Hong Kong on the night of Dec. 16.

Origin of the Organ Donor Unknown

When asked whether using organs from the mainland had happened before, Tang described the incident as a “special case that warrants special attention.”

Neither Tang nor the Children’s Hospital responded when asked which city the organ donor came from and how they ensured organ trafficking did not occur.

Tang said that he does not rule out the possibility of importing mainland organs through the same route in the future, but it depends on whether the patient can find a suitable organ in Hong Kong.

Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece, Xinhua News Agency, detailed the timeline of what they dubbed the“Tsz Hei Project,” saying that it took less than three hours from picking up the heart in Shenzhen to transporting it to Hong Kong for the operation. That customs clearance was completed in just eight minutes.

ISHLT: Don’t Use Organs from Mainland China

When asked about the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation’s (ISHLT) statement calling on members not to use organs from mainland China and whether they were worried that Hong Kong’s use of organs from mainland China would affect the reputation of organ transplants in Hong Kong, Tang said that with the high standards of mainland surgeons, he has “absolutely no worries that will affect our reputation in any way.”

The ISHLT issued a statement this year stating that there was evidence suggesting the Chinese government continues to harvest organs from executed prisoners systematically and therefore prohibits the submission of any researcher from using organs or human tissues from mainland China.

The ISHLT statement also cited the 2020 judgment of “The China Tribunal” held in London against the CCP’s forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.

Sir Geoffrey Nice, KC, pointed out in his judgment, “Forced organ harvesting has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, and… Falun Gong practitioners have been one–and probably the main–source of organ supply.” “In regard to the Uyghurs, the persecution and medical testing on a massive scale is relatively recent.”

Organ Donations in China are Rare

In the United States, most people register for an organ donation, and the waiting time for a heart is 6-12 months.

For Cleo, it took one month from appeal to donation to finding a heart that met the blood type and size and successfully transplanting it. The organ source remains unknown.

The extreme speed in which the heart was obtained has aroused widespread queries on social media, for in mainland China, the number of voluntary organ donations is extremely low.

The Epoch Times reported in June 2020 that four hearts were provided for a 24-year-old Chinese woman with myocarditis within ten days in China.

Lo Chung-mau, the Secretary of Health, says that there are currently more than 3,500 Hong Kong residents waiting for organ transplants in the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS), and nearly 1,000 people have had transplant operations.

Nine Hong Kong residents donated their organs before passing away, which saved the lives of 24 mainlanders.

Lo pointed out that he hoped to use this case to establish a long-term mechanism to include Hong Kong hospitals in the COTRS, “to maximize the use of donated organs of citizens after death, to save the lives of both Hong Kong and mainland residents.”

Organ Sharing Between Hong Kong and Mainland China

In May 2015, Lo, then director of the Liver Transplant Centre of Queen Mary Hospital, professor of the Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine of Hong Kong University, and a liver transplant expert, had already expressed his hope for in-depth cooperation with the mainland during his interview with CN-HEALTHCARE (a health website). An organ-sharing scheme between Hong Kong and the mainland was suggested.

He added that he has more than 20 years of experience cooperating with mainland transplant expert Zheng Shusen. “Zheng participated in our first liver transplant in Hong Kong,” he said.

In addition to being a liver transplant surgeon who has performed more than a thousand transplants, Zheng is also the vice chairperson of the “Anti-X Religion” Association of Zhejiang Province, a propaganda organization of the CCP used to incite hatred toward Falun Gong.