Long-distance relay brings heart to patient in Beijing

Doctor Zhang Xinyan checks a patient's treatment plan at an intensive care unit (ICU) of the Beijing Haidian Hospital in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2021. (Xinhua/Ren Chao)

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- Last month, the heart of a donor in south China's Shenzhen was flown over 2,000 km to Beijing, where the intended recipient, a 44-year-old man surnamed Li, was waiting for his life-saving transplant.

The clock was ticking, as the longest time period that a heart can safely exist without blood flow, the ischemic time, is less than six hours. The heart was removed from the donor's body at 6:35 p.m. on Oct. 28, and two and a half hours later, it left for Beijing.

After arriving at the capital city at 11:35 p.m. on the same day, the donated organ was hurried to the operating theater, where the surgeons were waiting, together with Li and his own failing heart.

Within an hour, at 12:30 a.m. on Oct. 29, the transplanted heart was in Li's body. The operation was completed at 4:16 a.m.

Currently, Li has been taken off the ventilator, the endotracheal tube has been removed, and he has been transferred out of the ICU, said the attending doctor at Beijing Fuwai Hospital. The patient has even been able to get out of the bed and take a walk, the doctor added.

Li received treatment at the hospital in March, and had been placed on the heart-transplant waiting list on the China Organ Transplant Response System, a voluntary organ donation and allocation system that accepts hospital-based voluntary donors.

As Li's heart function continued to deteriorate and his blood pressure proved difficult to maintain, an intra-aortic balloon pump was implanted into his body as an auxiliary support. He suffered a series of complications but struggled against the disease in the hope of some improvement.

On Oct. 28, some encouraging news arrived. Li was due to be the recipient of a heart transplant, courtesy of a donor who had been declared brain dead.

However, due to the donor's conditions, the open-heart surgery was expected to be completed in about 2 hours, according to experts.

With the donor's heart becoming available, urgent steps were needed to rush it from one city to the other in good time, experts said.

In the following six hours, a group of people cooperated closely in relays to ensure a perfectly safe delivery, including workers at the airports, members of the surgical teams and passengers on the flight to Beijing.

To accommodate this important medical cargo, the flight to Beijing was delayed by about an hour, and passengers on board showed great patience and understanding as they waited for the delivery.

Despite the intense situation, the organ arrived right on time, within six hours, thus promising a successful surgery and minimizing the risk of serious medical complications, said an expert with Beijing Fuwai Hospital.