In the past three years, organ donation in Shanghai has risen, and there are already eight organ procurement organizations and 80 donation coordinators in the city.
But the actual numbers of donations are still low, with only a couple of hundred in Shanghai in that time. And across China more than a million people sit on waiting lists to receive transplants.
Jiao Yu passed away in his 25th year. He gave away his liver, heart, lungs, corneas and kidneys to help six patients to recover from their illnesses. The story is told in the hit medical documentary The Secular World: Reunion.
According to an Oriental Morning Post story, apart from these lucky recipients, 1.5 million people in China are urgently waiting for organ transplants.
But across the country, registration rates for organ donation are remarkably low; it's 1,000 times lower than in the highest country.
Plenty of doctors believe that expanding organ donations in the country is hampered by traditional ideas, such as that the deceased should not be desecrated and that organ donations should be approved by the deceased's relatives.
"Compared to some advanced international cities, organ donations and transplants in Shanghai are just at its beginning," an official at the Red Cross Society of China Shanghai Branch said.
Donor registration in Shanghai has grown since voluntary donor lists began three years ago. The donor registration rate in Shanghai is 2.5 times higher than the country average; quality of care is also listed as No.1 nationwide.
In those three years and up through August 10, there have been 219 successful cases of organ donations in Shanghai. Some donations are deemed unacceptable due to complications, such as family members opposed to the process or delays in the process of handling the fragile organs.
Success depends on the efforts of the city's organ procurement organizations and donation coordinators.
A reporter from the Oriental Morning Post found that many organ donation coordinators are part-time workers. Some are social workers from the hospital, and others are clinicians and nurses.
For them, failure is more common than success, and they still show their understanding for relatives of the deceased and their concerns over contravening tradition.
Breaking the ice
Organ transplants emerged in China in the 1970s. Compared with Western countries, organ donation arrived rather late in China. Until 2003, the number of donations in China was still zero.
During 2010 and 2013, China launched organ donation pilot projects in 19 provinces. After three years, the successful cases of organ donation totaled 659, and there were 1,804 organs donated.
Starting in 2015, China banned using organs from death row inmates as a transplant source. Citizens' voluntary donations became the sole legal source of organ transplants.
In that year, 2,766 people in China decided to donate their organs at the end of their lives. Among these, 80 were from Shanghai.
"Although the current success rate of organ donation in China is not that high, the progressive rate is satisfying," Shen Bing, vice director of medical department in Shanghai General Hospital, said.
"Organ donation does not only mean the end of one life, but also represents the rebirth of several other lives. Citizens' awareness of organ donation is raised, and the donation rate increases year by year as well."
Currently, there are over 65,000 registered organ donors nationwide, and 7,400 cases of individuals whose organs were successfully harvested.
Last year, over 20,000 main organs were donated and 2,766 cases of organ transplants made, an increase of 62.5 percent compared to 2014. As a result, 16,000 patients with organ failure were helped.
In July, Shanghai held a forum on organ donation and transplants. At the forum, Zhang Gang, vice president of the Red Cross Society of China Shanghai Branch, said that the social environment for organ donation has improved.
