SHENZHEN No. 1 People's Hospital announced yesterday (July 24) that the city's first lung transplant Wednesday was a success.

The lungs came from a 39-year-old Guangzhou woman surnamed Yang, who also donated eight other organs, including heart, liver, kidneys and corneas, after she was confirmed brain dead July 16.

Her organs were soon delivered to hospitals in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, and successfully helped save nine patients.

The number of organs donated by Yang is the largest by a single person in China.

The 32-year-old patient in Shenzhen, only identified by his family name Gan, was suffering from serious lung disease. He had been coughing since he was born, and had been suffering breathing difficulties for over a decade.

The transplant operation, which started at 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, lasted for eight hours.

A lung transplant is recognized as the most complicated operation among all organ transplants as the human body's respiratory system has to be re-established, said Zhou Hanxin, president of Shenzhen No. 1 People's Hospital. Less than nine hospitals on the mainland are able to perform lung transplants independently.

The Shenzhen hospital performed its first organ transplant in 2002. The hospital carried out lung transplant experiments on pigs in 2004. It successfully performed its first liver transplant in 2002, and the first heart transplant in 2005.

Gan is recovering well, and all complications have been solved, said Wang Zheng, director of the heart and lung department of the hospital.

Editor: Wing