4-month-old Hong Kong girl suffering from heart failure receives successful transplant with donated organ from mainland China, in city’s first such arrangement

Cleo Lai undergoes operation after National Health Commission finds heart belonging to mainland child who succumbed to severe head injury on Friday

Health Bureau notes importation of organ met relevant regulations, and hospital officials say arrangement involving mainland might be repeated in future

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Four-month-old Cleo Lai at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital. Photo: Handout

Published: 2:04pm, 17 Dec 2022Updated: 12:44am, 18 Dec 2022

A four-month-old girl suffering from heart failure has undergone a transplant in Hong Kong with a donated organ from mainland China in the first arrangement of its kind in the city.

In an unprecedented move, the National Health Commission helped to secure the heart for the city resident, and hospital authorities on Saturday said they might turn to the mainland to secure life-saving organs again in the future.

Cleo Lai Tsz-hei underwent the operation earlier in the day at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital after the Human Organ Transplant Board, a statutory body under the Department of Health, approved the donation, authorities said.

Cleo suffered from dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease that caused the walls of her heart to thin and stretch, enlarging the organ and making it difficult to pump blood around her body. She underwent an operation in October, but when her condition did not improve, her mother and the doctors treating her made an urgent public appeal for a donor.

Cleo’s mother appeals for a heart donor for her daughter last month. Photo: Edmond So

With time running out, the Hospital Authority contacted the National Health Commission, which found a heart belonging to a mainland child who succumbed to a severe head injury on Friday.