Chapter Three: Approved National Military Transplant Centres

The People’s Liberation Army No. 301 Hospital is the People’s Liberation Army’s largest comprehensive military hospital, incorporating medical treatment, health care, education, and scientific research. The hospital is responsible for the health care of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, Central Military Committee, and high-ranking generals. ¹⁷It claims to have been leading the country in kidney transplantation technologies. ¹⁸

The People’s Liberation Army General Hospital International Medical Centre opened up the exclusive South Building previously reserved for the above category of patients. In December 2009, the Centre began serving provincial and ministerial-level leaders, international VIPs, elites in various industries, celebrities, and other high-end clients.¹⁹ Its chief surgeon Huang Zhiqiang was a well-known hepatobiliary surgeon in China and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

The hospital retains six members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, more than 100 third-class experts (equivalent in rank to generals in non-combat positions), and more than 1,000 senior professional staff members. Its staff includes 184 doctoral advisors, 293 master’s advisors, and more than 180 who serve as directors or deputy directors of various medical committees at national and militarywide levels. This hospital is also called the Medical School of Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the only military education facility founded by a military hospital. Over the years, it has trained more than 4,000 clinical medical professionals with doctoral or master’s degrees, more than 10,000 clinical trainees from many military and local hospitals, and tens of thousands of students under its education programs.

The hospital has carried out more than 800 research projects under the National 973 Program and the 863 Program. It has won more than 1,300 science and technology awards at national, provincial, and ministerial levels, including 7 national first-class and 20 national second-class scientific improvement awards. It publishes 23 national core scientific and technological journals, one of which is listed by Science Citation Index. The hospital has led the country for four years in a row in the total number of papers published domestically and internationally. It has established partnerships with over 100 leading institutions in the field, both in China and abroad, and employs more than 200 experts as guest professors.

This photo was taken in 2007, when Francis L. Delmonico, former director of medical affairs for The Transplantation Society (TTS) and an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO), visited China. In addition, Chen Zhu and Huang Jiefu, Chinese Minister and Vice Minister of health, two military representatives were from No. 301 People’s Liberation Army General Hospital.²⁸ This shows the important role which this hospital played in China’s organ transplant field.

The web page of this department shows that it performed its first autologous kidney transplant in 1974 and has carried out over 2,000 allogeneic renal transplants since 1977. However, per an article entitled “Progress of China’s clinical kidney allograft” by Director Yu Lixin of Guangzhou Nanfang Hospital Organ Transplant Centre, as early as 2000, the number of kidney transplants completed at this hospital had already reached 1,180.³⁴ It is unlikely that this huge hospital that “has always been leading the country on liver and kidney transplantation technologies” performs only 50 kidney transplants each year.

The department has 3 hospital inpatient sections with 180 beds, an ICU section with 30 beds, 6 dedicated operating rooms, and a cardiovascular research lab of 2,000 square meters equipped with the advanced equipment and a large team. Heart transplantation has become routine surgery at this hospital, its website says. The department conducts close to 3,000 operations annually, 65% of which are complex operations on serious diseases.

The department twice completed three consecutive heart transplants within one day, one instance of which was attributed to vice director Professor Wang Hongbing, who holds the national record for that particular feat. Professor Cai Zhenjie, director of the Armed Police General Hospital Cardiovascular Disease Research Institute and long-time director of the Fourth Military Medical University Cardiovascular Surgery Research Institute, is the other record holder as of September 2003.¹³⁴

The Armed Police General Hospital, formerly the Central Guards Regiment Health Centre, is a large, modern, comprehensive 3A hospital providing medical care, health care, education, research, and rescue services. The hospital has 1,380 beds. Its staff includes 13 doctoral advisors and 100 Master’s advisors. It is a national-class postdoctoral research station and a training base for medical students and postgraduates.¹⁴⁴

Its Liver Transplant Institute is claimed to be Beijing’s largest liver transplant centre. It was jointly founded by the hospital and the Tianjing Oriental Organ Transplant Centre in late 2001, with liver transplant specialist Shen Zhongyang as the director. It set up a highly-skilled organ transplant team with rich clinical experience in performing liver and kidney surgery, organ transplantation medicine, and organ transplant care. Shen established a standard procedure for liver transplantation that has made it a routine clinical practice in China. Shen’s teams in Tianjing and Beijing both set, and maintained a record of carrying out the most transplants in China. ¹⁴⁵

This hospital’s website claims that the volume of liver transplants ranked second place nationwide from 2003 to early 2008. During this period, Shen helped 47 hospitals in 16 provinces start their own liver transplantation services. ¹⁴⁶

Zang Yunjin joined the Liver Transplant Institute in January 2005 and served as deputy director. From January 2005 to January 2008, he also instructed many hospitals in Hebei, Henan, and Shandong province to carry out liver transplants. ¹⁴⁷

Chen Xinguo began to specialize in liver transplant clinical work in 2002. Chen participated in nearly 2,000 liver transplant surgeries in 13 years and has independently completed over 600 liver transplants. Chen pioneered several types of transplants in China and has completed difficult transplant surgeries, including combined liver-kidney and split liver transplants. He also assisted over 10 institutes inside and outside Beijing to carry out liver transplants. Chen was responsible for major initiatives of two state projects—The 863 Program and The 973 Program, two provincial projects, and two projects for Chinese People’s Armed Police Force.¹⁴⁸

In 2005, Liu Hang from the Oriental Organ Transplant Centre formed a renal transplant team at this institute. By July 2010, the number of kidney transplants performed by the team had ranked first in the Beijing-Tianjin area.¹⁴⁹ Liu also trained over 10 junior surgeons in liver and kidney procurement.

Niu Yujian has been working in the transplant field for nearly 20 years, and founded the organ transplant drop-in centre. The centre treats more than 30,000 organ transplant recipients annually, including liver, kidney, lung, combined liver-kidney and pancreas-renal transplant recipients.¹⁵⁰

This is one of the largest military hospitals in China. The hospital’s official website and its domestic internet have hardly any information about the scale of organ transplants.

Its kidney transplant centre is well known in China. This department’s featured specialties include allograft kidney transplantation. Currently, it has 11 surgeons, including 7 with senior professional titles, 5 with doctoral degrees and 2 with Master’s degrees.¹⁵¹

Currently its official website shows: “Since it successfully carried out the first case of an allograft kidney transplant in August 1978, the hospital has completed more than 1700 cases of kidney transplant.” “It has 36 inpatient beds.” This less than 100 average annual transplant volume obviously does not match its status of “one of the most famous transplant centres in the country.”

Liu Long, the director of its urologic surgery department, specializes in kidney transplantation. Liu is a committee member of the Chinese Organ Transplantation Society and the Kidney Transplantation Group of the Chinese Urological Association. He is also the deputy director of the People’s Liberation Army Organ Transplant Professional Committee.

The website of its hepatobiliary surgery department shows that it has 11 surgeons, including 1 chief and 7 deputy chief surgeons. Among them are 1 postdoctoral fellow, 4 doctorates and 3 Master’s degree holders. The only message about liver transplantation on this web page states that Zhou Wenping, director of this department, studied Liver Transplant in Sweden’s Hudding Hospital from 1996 to 1997. He successfully implemented the first liver transplant in the Shenyang Military Region in October 2002.¹⁵²

The hospital’s ophthalmology department is renowned in the People’s Liberation Army, especially for its specialty of cornea transplantation. The hospital claims to have the largest eye bank in northeastern China as well as in the entire military. This eye bank has abundant donor sources. The quantity of cornea transplants performed is at the forefront among major hospitals in the northeast. It is also known as the only hospital in the Shenyang region capable of readily providing supplies to meet the demand of cornea transplantation patients.¹⁵²

This is the first affiliated hospital of the Southern Medical University (formerly the First Military Medical University). As the earliest medical centre to serve foreigners, Nanfang Hospital has admitted more than 110,000 patients from over 90 countries and regions. The Chinese Communist Party Central Military Commission named it “Exemplary Medical Division [Serving] Overseas Chinese.” It ranks 16^th in the latest ranking for China’s best hospitals (Fudan edition). The hospital has 2,225 beds, more than 600 senior professionals and technical personnel, 102 doctoral advisors, and 148 Master’s advisors. ¹⁵⁴

The Department of Organ Transplantation has over 30 medical staff members, including 2 professors, 6 associate professors and associate chief surgeons, and 4 attending surgeons. The majority of the professionals have PhDs. Three of them were trained as post-doctoral fellows at the Organ Transplant Centre of the University of Pittsburgh, the Organ Transplant Centre of Northwestern University, and the Organ Transplant Centre of University of Cincinnati, respectively. ¹⁵⁵

The head of the kidney transplant centre, Professor Yu Lixin, a PhD advisor, is a distinguished expert for the Bureau of Health Care for Central Officials, head of the national kidney transplant professional group, and chairman of the Guangdong Organ Transplantation Society. He has achieved an advanced level internationally in research on kidney, liver, pancreas, and abdominal multi-organ transplants.¹⁵⁶ In collaboration with colleagues, Yu has completed over 3,800 surgical cases of kidney transplants. He has published over 200 papers as the first author, and trained one hundred graduate students so far. ¹⁵⁷

In a paper published in 2004, he stated that as early as November 2001, the hospital had conducted 2,123 kidney transplants. The hospital consistently ranks second in the nation for the volume of kidney transplants performed.¹⁵⁸

The research conducted by this Department of Kidney Transplantation has reached an internationally advanced level. In addition, the research in the field of liver transplants, combined pancreas-kidney and liver-kidney transplants has been leading nationally. Since 1978, the quantity and quality of kidney transplants are among the national top list, ranking second to top in China and top in Guangdong Province. ¹⁵⁹

Its Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery is one of largest of three liver transplant centres in southern China. It carried out relevant basic and clinical research early, and is one of the institutions carrying out the largest volume of liver transplants in Guangdong Province. The centre is state-authorized to offer Doctorate Degree. In recent years, it has been responsible for more than 10 programs from the National Natural Science Foundation, the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, and the Key Technologies R & D Program of Guangdong Province, while supported by one million RMB of funding. ¹⁶⁰

Professor Zhou Jie, the director of the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, a PhD advisor, has especially deep knowledge in the subject of liver transplantation. Deputy Director Yang Dinghua, a PhD advisor, has worked in the area of clinical application and research on hepatobiliary surgery and liver transplants for over 20 years.¹⁶¹

The hospital has trained a large number of doctoral and Master’s students in its kidney transplantation program. These students began with no knowledge of kidney transplantation but became relatively skilled kidney transplant specialists after finishing their internships.¹⁶²

This is the largest comprehensive military general hospital in Zhejiang Province that combines medical treatment, education, research and health care. It serves as a teaching hospital for Zhejiang University, Second Military Medical University, Jiangsu University, Anhui Medical University, Wenzhou Medical University, and Medical College of Hangzhou Normal University.¹⁶³ It has over 1000 beds. ¹⁶⁴

Its large kidney disease centre provides internal medicine and surgical therapy, dialysis treatment, and kidney transplant for kidney diseases. The centre currently has 83 beds. It’s one of three medical institutions in Zhejiang Province permitted to perform kidney transplantation operations.¹⁶⁵ However one can hardly find any information related to its organ transplant volume on the website.

Xu Longgen is the chief surgeon in the kidney transplant team. He is the deputy director of the Organ Transplantation Association of the Nanjing Military Region, and a standing committee member of Zhejiang Organ Transplantation Association. He has worked in this area for almost 30 years. However, the only transplant volume data on the website shows that Xu  has given guidance in carrying  out over 600 cases of kidney transplants.¹⁶⁶

This is the second affiliated hospital of the Southern Medical University and the School of Clinical Medicine. It has more than 400 senior medical staff, with over 90% holding Master’s degrees in the medical field. The hospital has a capacity of 2,200 beds. ¹⁶⁷

Organ transplantation is the hospital’s featured specialty. It was among the earliest institutions with accredited doctoral programs in organ transplantation. Its organ transplant centre is one of China’s major transplant centres, and has achieved an internationally advanced level in cadaveric renal transplantation, relative-donor kidney transplantation, liver and combined pancreas-kidney transplantation. Its kidney transplantation enjoys widespread repute both in China and abroad. ¹⁶⁸

The centre is broken into three sections: an organ transplant ward, blood purification facilities, and a transplant immunity research centre (including tissue typing). Its website shows the transplant ward has 42 expandable beds, 30 hotel style single rooms, and 10 ICU beds. All its general wards have a separate bathroom, color TV, refrigerator, and telephone. ¹⁶⁹

There are 37 members in the department. It has 8 professors and associate professors, 2 associate chief technicians, and 4 lecturers, including 6 PhDs, with Master’s degrees, two who has studied abroad, and 4 doctoral and Master’s advisors.

According to a website archive in 2013, the centre had already performed over 3,100 kidney transplants. After three years, the number of total kidney transplants shown on the website didn’t increase, but was reduced to around 2000. This transplant centre received various national and provincial research funding of over 3.7 million yuan as part of the tenth five-year plan. They have published over 70 academic papers in the past 3 years, 13 are included as part of the Science Citation Index, one of the article has SCI impact factor of 36.6. It has developed large number of doctorate, master’s and fellows over the years. ¹⁷⁰

Zhao Ming, director of the organ transplant department and a member of the National Organ Transplant Committee, has very rich experience in kidney, pancreas, combined pancreas-kidney, liver, and islet cell transplantation.¹⁷¹ He is responsible for a number of major national, military, and Guangdong province research projects, and has published over 20 papers in major journals and participated in the writing of two books.

Lin Minzhuan used to be the deputy director at the hospital (he is now deputy director of organ transplant department at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College). When he was on staff he personally conducted 2,600 kidney transplants, dozens of liver transplants, and combined pancreas-kidney transplants, according to the hospital’s website. He has directed or worked for a number of hospitals in organ transplants, and is vice chairman of the Organ Transplantation Group of the Guangzhou Committee of the Medical Society, and a standing committee member of the Organ Transplantation Group of the Guangdong Provincial Committee.¹⁷²

The hospital does not have a liver transplant permit, but it performed liver transplants. Its hepatobiliary surgery department website says that it began liver transplants in 2001, and that since then its technology has matured. It completed the first Rh-negative rare blood type, and the first “no-blood transfusion” liver transplant surgery in mainland China. The longest patient survival after kidney transplant exceeded 14 years. ¹⁷³

The hospital’s liver transplant centre has 4 chief surgeons, 3 deputy chief surgeons, 1 PhD, and 10 staff members with Master’s degrees. The hospital hosts Master’s degree training units for many well-known medical universities, including Southern Medical University, Medical College of Nanchang University, Fujian Medical University, etc.

In September 2002, the centre successfully performed the first liver transplantation in southern Fujian Province. It holds 4 “national first and only” records in liver transplantation technology. It has 126 beds.¹⁷⁴

Zhang Chenghua, director of the liver transplant centre, has a good reputation and is influential among his peers. ¹⁷⁵  He has expertise in maintaining the function of organs, liver and kidney transplantation.¹⁷⁶

Its Ophthalmic Department is the Ophthalmology Centre of Nanjing Military. It has spearheaded keratoplasty in Fujian Province, and established the Quanzhou eye bank. It routinely carries out keratoplasty and amniotic membrane transplants. ¹⁷⁷ In June 2010, it was officially named the No. 180 Ophthalmic Hospital. It has 180 beds, over 10 staff members with senior professional titles, and 22 with Master’s degrees and above.¹⁷⁸

This hospital has over 2,000 professional technical staff, including over 200 of senior rank, nearly 200 PhD and Master’s advisors, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and 4 principal scientists of the state “973” project. All of its clinical disciplines and first level disciplines in biomedical engineering offer PhD and graduate degree programs with clinical post-doctoral research stations. It trains over 1,800 students from various disciplines and accepts over 500 post-graduate physicians annually.

It was one of the first hospitals in China to carry out heart, liver, lung, kidney, and other major organ transplants. It performed the first pediatric heart transplant in China, and its lung transplant survival time ranks second in China.¹⁷⁹

Its Department of Urologic Surgery was founded in 1965 as one of China’s earliest urologic in-patient wards. It has distinct advantages and features in renal transplantation; its academic and technological strength are advanced in southwestern China and even nationally. Its academic disciplines also exert important influence in the country. Its team includes 11 senior professionals, 7 intermediate professionals, 6 post-doctoral fellows, and 11 PhDs. It has more than 150 beds. ¹⁸⁰

This department has 5 PhD and 2 Master’s advisors. It recruits 8 to 10 PhD and graduate students each year. In total, it has trained over 100 medical PhD and Master’s students and several hundred post-graduate physicians for the military and the region. It currently undertakes over 20 projects, including those from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Health Research Funds, and the Ministry of Education’s Starting Foundation for Talent Returning from Overseas. In recent years, it has won 13 military, provincial, and ministry-level awards and obtained over 30 national patents. It has published over 40 SCI research papers overseas and over 200 articles in domestic journals.

The hospital’s annual gross revenue was 36 million RMB in the late 1990s, when transplant operations had just begun. In 2009, its revenue exceeded 900 million RMB, a 25 fold increase.¹⁸¹

The hospital has undertaken over 660 major and key research projects, including the state “973” and “863” programs, as well as those from the National Natural Science Foundation. It has won over 150 second prize awards or above at the national, military, provincial, and ministerial levels. In China’s twelfth five-year plan, it was awarded more than 400 national patents. In 2014, it earned 10 million RMB from its scientific and technological achievements. In just the past 5 years, it has published over 650 high-quality articles in the SCI and EI journals and the three top journals, Cell, Nature and Science.

This hospital was founded through the merger of the People’s Liberation Army No. 153 Hospital and the People’s Liberation Army No. 460 Hospital (former People’s Liberation Army Air Force Zhengzhou Hospital)¹⁸². It is the teaching base for dozens of military universities, including the Fourth Military Medical University, People’s Liberation Army Medical College, Bethune Medical University, Zhengzhou Medical University, etc. It has trained a large number of experts for both military and civilian hospitals. It has over 1,800 beds, 5 post-doctoral fellows, over 30 staff with PhD degrees, over 120 staff with Master’s degrees, over 130 staff with senior professional titles, and over 150 with intermediate professional titles. ¹⁸³

Its Urologic Surgery Department pioneered kidney transplant surgery in Henan Province in the 1980s. Kidney transplantation has become the hospital’s specialty and is domestically “state of the art” The department has 8 senior technical staff, 2 staff members with PhDs, and 3 staff members with Master’s degrees. It has 80 beds. ¹⁸⁴

According to media reports, this hospital had completed about 800 cases of kidney transplants as early as in September 2000. It actively solicited business in Southeast Asia. ¹⁸⁴

On September 26, 2000, the Overseas Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan column of People’s Daily reported this type of story: Lu Fang, a 53-year-old private school teacher in Taipei, learned from the media that the People’s Liberation Army 460 Hospital had successfully conducted about 800 kidney transplants. Lu Fang arrived the hospital in Zhengzhou on September 3.  After eight days, the transplant experts spent more than three hours to implement a kidney transplant for Lu Fang. Since the disease situation was complex, this hospital specifically prepared two kidney “donors” for her transplant surgery.

According to a doctor’s thesis from the Urologic Surgery Department of the People’s Liberation Army No. 460 Hospital, by 2005, the hospital had carried out at least 1,217 kidney transplants. ¹⁸⁶ The department began liver transplants in 2003.

www.china-kidney.com was the official website of the Central China People’s Liberation Army Renal Transplant Collaboration, which was formerly the People’s Liberation Army 460 Hospital Urology Surgery. The contents of this website included an online booking transplant form, a transplant expert’s quiz, a video on a live kidney transplant surgery, and an organ transplant matching software available for download. (The site can no longer be accessed.)¹⁸⁷

According to a Xinhua report in 2009, the People’s Liberation Army 452 (Chengdu Air Force) hospital, spearheaded by the development of kidney transplantation, leaped from a “township-level scale” to the equivalent of a large hospital within several years. It claims that it has performed the most kidney transplants in Sichuan Province.¹⁸⁸

In 2000, the hospital had 89 vacancies for doctors, and its facilities and equipment remained at the same level as they were in the early 1990s. Additionally, the hospital owed external debts of over 6 million RMB. However as of 2008, it had increased its in-patient-bed numbers from 210 to more than 1,000; the value of its medical equipment increased from 30 million to 120 million RMB, and the hospital’s income increased from 20 million in 2000 to 260 million RMB in 2008.¹⁸⁹

At present, the hospital has more than 1,500 beds, 78 senior professionals, 195 intermediate professionals, 26 staff with PhDs, 95 with Master’s degrees, and a large number of post-doctoral fellows. The hospital’s kidney transplant capabilities are well-known both in southwestern China and nationwide.¹⁸⁹

On April 28, 2006, a reporter from an oversea media conducted an investigation into this hospital under the guise of a relative of a patient looking for organs. Yahong Xu, the director of the urologic surgery department, said that after mid-May 2006, there would be a number of kidneys available for transplant, and also that there were some voluntary donors, and that organs would be provided by young, healthy, Falun Gong practitioners. Xu himself had conducted more than 500 transplants, or more than 100 per year over the previous two or three years.¹⁹¹

After this was publicly exposed, the hospital deleted pages containing transplant data from its official site. Xu’s personal web page claimed that he had a high reputation in the field of organ transplantation in southwestern China and within the entire military, but shows he has only carried out 287 kidney transplants during his nearly 20 years of experience in renal transplantation.¹⁹²

During the same investigation, Honghui Li, the director of the kidney transplant centre at Tsinghua University Yuquan Hospital (Second Hospital of Tsinghua University) in Beijing, said that, due to the recent lack of donors in Beijing, he had been assigned to Chengdu, Sichuan Province a couple of months ago, where there were more kidney sources in renal transplantation.¹⁹³

This hospital claims to be among the top in the nation in the field of kidney and heart transplantation. Its patients come from nearly 20 provinces and cities in China, as well as regions including Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas.¹⁹⁴

The hospital’s Wanke Heart Centre has a first-class surgical team that consists of many of China’s renowned experts and scholars who have studied overseas. The centre claims to have carried out the most heart transplants in China.¹⁹⁵

Senior medical specialists in liver transplantation and hepatobiliary surgery have been hired to work part time or as consultants from the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, the Armed Police General Hospital, etc. Meanwhile, it has recruited college students from more than 30 prestigious universities, greatly improving the quality and structure of the medical team.¹⁹⁶

Kidney transplantation is one of its fields of expertise. Zhao Xueyi, vice president and academic discipline leader, has conducted a large number of kidney transplant research projects and studies, and applied them to clinical practice. Zhao has also set three national records.

The hospital performed three transplants simultaneously in the morning of June 7, 2005, with more than 30 medical staff on the front lines. Professor Liu Zhenwen, a renowned liver transplant expert, served as the chief surgeon of liver transplants. Professor Zhao Xueyi, the director for the kidney transplant centre, was the chief surgeon for kidney transplants.¹⁹⁷

This hospital has 2,360 beds, 390 staff with graduate degrees and above, including 177 PhDs and post-doctoral fellows, and 213 staff with master’s degrees. Its specialties include kidney, liver, cornea and bone marrow transplants.¹⁹⁸

In 1987, the hospital established its Urologic Surgery Department, which was approved to be the Urologic Surgery Centre of Jinan Military Command. In 2005, it was approved to serve as a kidney transplant centre and dialysis centre for the military by the People’s Liberation Army General Logistics Department. Since 2003, it has carried out various liver, combined liver-kidney, and other types of transplants.¹⁹⁹ Its transplant volume ranks among the top ten in China and the top five in the military.²⁰⁰

Many members of its transplant surgery department have studied at well-known liver transplant centres, including Shanghai Changzheng Hospital, the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in Shanghai, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.

Director Zhen Zhong of the hepatobiliary surgery department studied under academician Wu Mengchao at the Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital in Shanghai. He also studied pancreatic surgery under Professor Hu Xiangui at Changhai Hospital in Shanghai.²⁰¹

On December 1, 2008, Qilu Evening News reported that Director Li Xiangtie was leading the urologic surgery team with top-notch surgeons/physicians. The team was capable of performing 6 kidney transplants simultaneously. It set a national record of performing 16 kidney transplants within 24 hours. Its annual transplant volume has ranked among the nation’s top 10 for 10 consecutive years.²⁰²

The Qilu Evening News reported on July 28, 2003 that this hospital charges 30,000 to 40,000 RMB for a kidney transplant and 20,000 to 40,000 RMB per year for immunosuppressive drugs thereafter. At the time, it had performed more than 1,300 kidney transplants.²⁰³

The hospital’s website states that its urologic surgery department has completed 1,500 kidney transplants since 1978.²⁰⁴ However, according to the Qilu Evening News in 2008, the department once performed 16 kidney transplants in 24 hours. In addition, transplantation.org.cn reported in 2012 that director Zhang Aimin, claimed that the hospital had performed more than 2,500 kidney transplants between 1978 and 2012.²⁰⁵ The total now showing on the hospital’s website in 2016 is 1,000 fewer than Zhang’s figure in 2012.

Since 2003, its hepatobiliary surgery centre has carried out the first liver transplant in the Jinan Military Region and the first combined liver-kidney transplant in the province.²⁰⁶

Its Ophthalmology Centre established a cornea transplant centre and operates the province’s first eye bank.²⁰⁷

This hospital has the largest urologic surgery department in southern China and among the southern military command. It began to conduct kidney transplants in 1981. Its staff includes 4 master’s and PhD advisors, one General-level specialist, 8 decorated experts, 7 post-doctoral fellows and staff with PhDs, and 8 staff with master’s degrees. It is noted as having first-class specialized equipment.²⁰⁸

The department has led and participated in over 20 research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation, the Ministry of Health, and the Guangdong Province Science Committee. It has received 6 national patents and edited nearly 20 monographs. It has published more than 300 papers domestically (more than 10 in SCI journals).

The hospital’s liver transplant centre has a strong and versatile team that is among the best in the province.²⁰⁹ It has carried out clinical research on liver transplants since the 1980s. In recent years, it has completed allogeneic liver, allogeneic piggyback liver, secondary liver, and liver-kidney transplants. It also conducted liver transplants for the elderly (the oldest patient was 78, being the oldest liver transplant recipient in the world).

Professor Huo Feng is skilled in liver transplantation. He studied under academician Wu Mengchao of the Chinese Academy of Science.²¹⁰

Wang Shaoping, who oversees transplants, is a relatively influential liver transplant specialist in the country and a standing committee member of the Guangzhou Military Command Organ Transplantation Society. He is a contributing editor of the national core Journal of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery and has published more than 20 papers. He has led two research projects funded by the Guangdong Science Foundation and received two military science and technology progress awards.²¹¹

“The high success rate, fewer complications, fast sourcing of donor livers, high quality of donor livers, and lower cost of surgery are the advantages of liver transplantation in our department.” Its liver transplant operations are at the forefront in Guangdong Province in terms of surgery volume.²¹²

In the morning of April 21, 2006, the director of its urologic surgery department, Zhu (male with a Hakka accent) told a WOIPFG investigator assuming the identity of a transplant patient over the phone, “Come as quickly as possible. There were 5 transplants last night and 6 more transplants scheduled for tonight. There are some scheduled for next week as well.”²¹³

Its ophthalmology department conducts cornea transplants.

This is a training base for graduate students of Southern Medical University, the Third Military Medical University in Chongqing, the Second Military Medical University in Shanghai, and other schools. It has a number of People’s Liberation Army medical centres, clinical bases, research institutes, and key specialties under the Guangzhou Military Command. The hospital has over 200 specialists and professors with associate senior titles or above, and over 200 staff with PhD and graduate degrees in medicine. It has more than 1,500 beds.²¹⁴

It is known to have strong organ transplant capabilities. It serves as the organ transplant centre for Guangzhou Military Command and is the director unit of the academic commission of organ transplantation under the Guangzhou Military Command. It also hosts the organ transplantation branch of the Guangxi Medical Association. It conducted its first kidney transplant in 1986 and the first pancreas-kidney transplant in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in 2000.

A People’s Liberation Army Kidney Transplant and Dialysis Centre was established in its nephrology department. Its kidney transplantation capabilities are claimed to be at an advanced level in the People’s Liberation Army and at a leading level in the Guangzhou Military Command and the Guangxi region. Its staff includes 2 PhD advisors, 4 master’s advisors, 5 chief surgeons, 3 associate chief surgeons, and 4 attending physicians. It has 150 beds.²¹⁵

The centre performed 8 transplant surgeries on December 30, 2012 alone, including heart, lung, kidney, liver, cornea, and islet cell transplants. Its organ transplant technology is known to be at a leading standard in the nation.²¹⁶ In March 2016, the hospital was recruiting two organ transplant liaisons.²¹⁷

Sui Weiguo, the centre’s director, adopted various blood purification methods to remove antibodies in highly sensitive kidney transplant patients. This has significantly improved the transplant success rate. He is the chairman of the Guangzhou Military Command Transplantation Professional Committee, chairman of the Guangxi Medical Association Transplantation Subcommittee, and a board member of the People’s Liberation Army Organ Transplantation Association.²¹⁸

The centre’s archived website shows that its bed and medical personnel count has not been updated since 2007. It still claims to perform over 150 kidney transplants per year since 2000. Based on the figure of 150 beds, each bed would in that case be used by only one patient every year. For such a small number of reported transplants, there would be no need for more than ten beds and one chief surgeon, let alone a whole building.

The hospital is not qualified to conduct heart transplants, and its website does not mention the subject. However, Sui Weiguo and other transplantation experts published a paper about acute rejection of heart transplants, based on a study of a group of 157 of his heart transplant patients. Therefore, Sui Weiguo, the director of the kidney transplant centre, has performed heart transplants as well.²¹⁹

Moreover, Pan Yuchen from People’s Liberation Army No. 181 Hospital and other experts from the cardiothoracic surgery department of the People’s Hospital of Guangxi, conducted experiments and clinical research in heart transplantation using a partially continuous beating technique. The technique is advanced internationally and has been applied in other hospitals extensively.²²⁰

The hepatobiliary surgery department’s archived website shows that it has had 50 beds since 2011 and performed over 30 liver transplants in total. However, the number was deleted in 2013.²²¹ The equivalent annual volume of transplants would not meet even the Ministry of Health’s minimum requirement for transplant certification.

In the late 1990s, this hospital and the People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing began sharing medical resources and set up remote online consultations. In early 2005, it spent 250,000 RMB to build a remote medical network through military satellites, connecting over 200 military hospitals and more than 1,000 experts. This remote treatment model provides patients with a platform for accessing high-end medical resources.²²²

The hospital has more than 1,200 professional staff, including 112 with senior titles and 208 PhDs, master’s degree holders, and post-doctoral fellows. Its organ transplantation department is a specialized centre of the Guangzhou Military Command.²²³

The Organ Transplant Centre of the hospital was established in May 2004。The first liver-kidney combined transplant was carried out in 2005. ²²⁴ In 2010, it established a Transplantation Research Institute and Key Laboratory Training Base that integrates clinical care, education, and research. It has over 20 post-doctoral fellows, PhDs, and Master’s.²²⁵

Its 10-story organ transplantation building became operational in 2006.²²⁶ It performs kidney, liver, heart, lung, cornea, and multi-organ transplants.

Sun Xuyong, president of the hospital’s Transplantation Research Institute, director of the Guangxi Transplantation Key Laboratory, and director of the Organ Transplant Centre of Guangzhou Military Command, studied under Professor Yu Lixin. Sun founded the Organ Transplant Centre at No. 303 Hospital in May 2004 and founded the hospital’s Transplantation Research Institute in June 2010. His research in kidney transplantation for high-risk uremia patients and multi-organ transplantation is at a leading level in China.²²⁷

Though the hospital is qualified for only kidney transplants, it has also carried out liver, lung, and cornea transplants. According to a Guangxi News report on December 14, 2012, more than 60 doctors carried out 6 transplant surgeries in 6 operating rooms simultaneously at No. 303 Hospital on that day. These included liver, lung, pancreas-kidney, and kidney transplants, as well as two cornea transplants. The surgeries continued until 1:00 am and ultimately achieved success.²²⁸

Dr. Sun Xuyong stated that the six organs were procured from the same donor, but did not explain the source of the donor. Lan Liugen, deputy director of the surgery division, indicated that this procedure at the hospital had reached an internationally advanced level, and that only transplant hospitals in the United States, Germany, Japan, and other developed countries can procure multiple organs from the same donor simultaneously. At the time, only two hospitals in China had this capability; the other was the Tongji Organ Transplant Research Institute of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology.²²⁹

Its organ transplantation department has published 23 academic papers in recent years (12 in core journals), including a series of clinical research on kidney transplants for elderly patients that had won a second-prize People’s Liberation Army medical achievement award.²³⁰

This hospital’s Eye Centre is a key discipline for the Guangzhou Military Command and the hospital itself. It is an ophthalmology education base for the Third Military Medical University, Southern Medical University, and other universities. It was one of the earliest institutions in China to carry out cornea transplants. Its surgical volume and technology are at the forefront in Guangxi Province.²³¹

Chengdu Military General Hospital serves as a base for kidney-transplant-related medical treatment, research, and education in Southwestern China. It serves as a teaching hospital for the Third Military Medical University, Southwest Jiaotong University College of Medicine, and others. It has 2,500 beds, 11 post-doctoral fellows, 119 staff members with PhDs, 186 with Master’s degrees, 153 professionals with senior titles, and 345 with intermediate titles.²³²

Its urologic surgery department is one of the main departments conducting organ transplants. Since 1979, the department has continuously carried out kidney transplants for the past several decades now, reaching an advanced level in China. It has 11 surgeons and physicians, including 3 professors and chief surgeons, 4 associate professors/associate chief surgeons, 4 attending surgeons, 5 staff members with PhDs, and 2 with Master’s degrees. In addition to kidney transplants, the department also carries out liver and bone marrow transplants. The department has 50 inpatient beds.^{233 234}

Its hepatobiliary surgery department has performed liver transplants extensively. The department has 2 professors, 3 associate professors, and 3 attending surgeons, all of whom hold PhD degrees and two of them were trained overseas. This department has 58 beds.²³⁵

This large, comprehensive military hospital located in the mid-southern region of China began to carry out clinical kidney and liver transplantation in the late 1970s. It was one of the pioneering institutions to conduct organ transplants in China.

Its urologic surgery department is now the centre of kidney transplantation in the Guangzhou Military Command.²³⁶ It has 126 open beds and a professional team consisting mainly of PhDs and Master’s degree holders.²³⁷

The hospital website claims its Urology Surgery Department has carried out more than 1,500 kidney transplants, more than 130 liver transplants and 11 combined liver and kidney transplants.²³⁸

However, just one surgeon—Tang Ligong, the chief surgeon of the department—is listed on the website as having carried out over 1,200 kidneys and more than 100 liver transplants.²³⁹ Thus, if the number of transplants attributed to Tang was accurate, it would mean that the many other surgeons working full time at the hospital had only performed 300 kidney transplants over more than a decade.

The same problem arises with the data as of June 2009, when the website says that Tang Ligong had carried out 1,100 kidney transplants. Based on these numbers, he only carried out around 100 transplants in the next 7 years. All this is suggestive of far greater transplant numbers than stated, and a deliberate attempt to obscure, distort, and low-ball the actual numbers.

Incidentally, Tang Ligong was caught in a telephone call, published in 2008, talking to an individual he took to be the family member of a patient. He said “It does not matter if donors are Falun or not. If it is needed, we use Falun Gong [practitioners]”²⁴⁰

The Second Affiliated Hospital of Hubei Medical University and Wuhan General Hospital coordinate over the use of source organs from Falun Gong practitioners according to WOIPFG’s investigation.²⁴¹