The kidneys of a two-day-old baby have been successfully transplanted into a girl dying of chronic renal failure, making the infant the youngest organ donor in China.
The baby had died from anoxic encephalopathy, neonatal asphyxia and lung infection, and her parents decided to donate her kidneys to "let her stay in the world in another way."
Doctors from the Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University were able to transplant the less than four-centimeter-long kidneys into Huang Jing (not her real name), a nine-year-old girl from Changsha County in central China's Hunan Province.
Huang had kidney disease since she was a toddler, which had affected her development.
"I am very happy and want to go to school," the nine-year-old said after the operation.
The operation was led by Peng Longkai, director of the hospital's organ transplant department.
Kidney transplants for young patients are a challenge due to the complexity of the operation and the tiny blood vessels involved, according to Peng.
The kidneys will continue to grow inside Huang over the next three months, Peng said
