FOUR pieces of corneas from the United States were transplanted successfully into four recipients in Zhuhai in Guangdong Province on Sunday (June 25).

The corneas, donated by a Taiwan society helping visually-impaired people, were flown from Missouri to the Guangzhou airport. They were then carried to the Zhuhai People's Hospital at 2:45 a.m. Sunday after a 8,000-kilometer journey.

Four doctors from Zhuhai and Taiwan performed the transplant operations on the four patients in under eight hours.

The corneas, from an eye bank in eastern Michigan and donated by recently deceased Americans, were sourced by the Love the Blind Society in Taiwan.

The society paid for the cost for the corneas, US$1,000 each, which included the transportation charges.

The recipients were selected from 120 eye patients who cannot afford the cost for a cornea transplant operation, which amounts to about tens of thousands of yuan.

Editor: Wing