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China's first long-distance lung donor transport

Reporter: Meng Qingsheng 丨 CCTV.com

08-20-2016 12:46 BJT

Let's take a look at the journey of the first-ever long-distance organ transport in China on May 9th this year. Our reported Meng Qingsheng followed the delivery from the southwestern city of Chengdu to the eastern city of Wuxi.
 
Preparing for China's first long-distance donor lung transportation. Doctors are racing against time to save a life thousands of kilometers away.

"Time control is the most important thing for us, as lungs have to be transplanted within 6 to 12 hours after removal from a donor. That's a challenge for us as well as for the transportation departments," said Huang Xiaobo, ICU director of Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital.

The transportation of human organs used to be a big headache for medics. But the introduction of fast channels intends to solve the issue head-on.

Doctors are now working inside this operating room. In about two hours, the donor’s lung(s) will travel two thousand kilometers by road, air and rail all the way to east China. It’s a real test for the implementation of the new fast channels.

But the real test begins when the donor's lungs are taken out and boxed. Doctors from the target hospital are hustled into an ambulance, along with a convoy of policemen.

When the organs arrive at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, a 10 minute boarding procedure is imposed.

Three hours later, the donated lungs arrive at Shanghai Hongqiao International airport amid heavy rain. It takes 20 minutes to transfer them to a nearby railway station.

Doors at all checkpoints are open after getting off the bullet train until the package is safely on-board the ambulance.

This is the last part of the whole journey. 15 minutes later, the lungs will be given to the recipient at a local hospital. The new channels have greatly reduced the travel time.

The whole journey takes five and half hours, while the window to transport the organs is just six hours. It's a race against time to save a life unknown to the organ's donor.

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