Hong Kong appeals to mainland China for lung for critically ill patient as local search also underway
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority (HA) has appealed to mainland Chinese authorities to help locate a lung needed for an urgent donation, while also searching locally.
The patient in need of a lung transplant is in a critical condition at the Prince of Wales Hospital, the HA said in a statement released on Monday.
Local media outlets reported that a woman in her 29th week of pregnancy developed pulmonary hypertension in September. She had an emergency caesarean section, but her condition has not improved.
“In view of the critical condition of the patient, in addition to proactively searching for suitable lung locally, the HA will also seek assistance from the Mainland through relevant procedures as soon as possible,” the HA said.
The HA also appealed to the public to support organ donations and consider donating the lung of a deceased relative.
Attempt to establish cross-boundary mechanism
This is not the first time that Hong Kong has included mainland China in its organ searches. In July, the HA said it was seeking assistance from mainland authorities in relation to a heart transplant for a 50-year-old man with severe heart failure.
In March, the HA said it considered asking for help from mainland China to save the life of a 37-year-man suffering from liver failure, local media reported.
Hong Kong and mainland China does not have a cross-boundary mutual assistance mechanism for organ transplants. Such cases are handled on an individual basis.
Hong Kong’s government tried to establish such a mechanism last year after the city received its first donated organ from mainland China. Lai Tsz-hei, a four-month old baby girl, became the recipient of a heart in December 2022.
Local experts have said any mechanism would maintain the “local first” rule, and that Hong Kong would be notified if the mainland cannot match an organ with a patient locally, and vice versa.
However, the proposal of the cross-boundary mechanism was shelved amid controversy. The city saw nearly 3,000 withdrawals from the organ donor registry in protest, moves which authorities said were “a small group of people” aiming to “disrupt” the registry.
The health chief Lo Chung-mau said last August that the government needed to do more work to explain its proposal for the mechanism.
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