The condition of an eight-month-old Hong Kong infant who received a heart transplant from a donor in mainland China is stable, a senior doctor has said, adding that the next few days will still be critical.
Eight-month-old Whitney. File photo: Supplied.
“It is now about 36 hours after Whitney had the operation, and her condition remains stable,” Cheung Yiu-fai, head of cardiology at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital, told an RTHK programme on Tuesday morning. “Heart rate, blood pressure, and ultrasound scans showed that the heart is functioning satisfactorily.”
He also said they would “continue to monitor indicators such as heart rate, blood pressure, as well as her lungs, kidney, and liver.”
“Undeniably, the first 24 hours after a major heart surgery are the most critical, but it is equally important in the next few days,” the cardiologist said in Cantonese, adding that the critical period will be over once Whitney can breathe without a ventilator.
The operation on Whitney – the city’s second patient to receive an organ donation from mainland China – was completed at around 9pm on Sunday at the hospital in Kai Tak.
Hong Kong’s health authorities said on Monday that it took two hours and 18 minutes to procure the heart from the donor at an undisclosed location in mainland China and to transport it to the Hong Kong hospital. The process involved 100 personnel from 18 mainland authorities.
A heart donated from mainland China arrives at the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital on February 16, 2025. Photo: Supplied.
Cheung also told the radio programme that it was “difficult” to find a heart for Whitney, who only weighed seven kilogrammes, because a suitable heart should only come from a donor who weighed between seven and 22 kilogrammes.
He said medical teams in Hong Kong and mainland China had a meeting on Saturday night to decide whether the heart was suitable for Whitney and to coordinate the time of the operations and the route of the transfer.
Mainland medical experts retrieved the heart from the donor at around noon on Sunday, and a surgeon from the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital received the organ at the border at around 1.30pm, he said.
The heart arrived at the hospital shortly after 2pm and the surgery on Whitney began immediately, the physician added.
“It was important that after the heart was removed [from the donor], it needed to be put in Whitney’s body in an ideal timeframe – between four to six hours,” Cheung said, adding that any time longer than that could result in the heart deteroriating.
The cardiologist also said that there was another child in need of a heart transplant and he called on residents to opt in for organ donation as there were few donors in the city.
The Hospital Authority logo. Photo: Tom Grundy/HKFP.
In an emailed reply to HKFP on Tuesday afternoon, the Hospital Authority said: “Whitney is still staying in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit of the Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. The clinical team will continue to closely monitor her condition and provide appropriate treatment.”
Whitney’s parents made a public appeal for a heart donation last year after she was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a condition in which the heart enlarges and cannot pump blood effectively.
The baby had been relying on a biventricular assist device – an implantable pump that helps the heart function in the case of heart failure – in the hospital’s intensive care unit since last October.
