Grisly Revelations of Organ Transplant in China

Recently I read the report about the atrocities committed at the concentration camp in Sujiatun, China, and I realised that the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is even more barbaric than Japan's Troop 731 during World War II in committing crimes against humanity.

Illegal organ transplant is not new in China. Mr. Hu Limin is a doctor who worked at the Urology Department of Tiexi Hospital of Anshan Steel Corp., located in the Tiexi District, Anshan City, Liaoning Province. He said that around 1990, the hospital sent him to the General Hospital of the Army in Shenyang City to study the skills of transplanting kidneys, and when he finished he came back to Tiexi Hospital and worked as a transplant surgeon.

Dr. Hu said, "The Urology Department of the General Hospital of the Army specialises in haemodialysis and kidney transplant. The head surgeon was Dr. Li Jianquan, who signed an agreement with the hospital at the start of the project. Under the agreement, he would perform 72 kidney transplant surgeries within a year and the hospital would pay him 1000 yuan (approximately US$ 110) per case, if he completed all 72 cases on schedule. Li was two cases short toward the end of the year, so he asked his subordinates who were responsible for finding kidneys to contact the local courts, and requested advancing the death sentencing of two convicts whose kidneys were found to match the patients. The courts cooperated and the two people were executed. Thus Li got the kidneys he wanted and fulfilled the task of completing 72 surgeries within one year. He was rewarded the bonus, became quite famous, and started to do more kidney transplant surgeries.

At the time, for each dead body provided, the hospital would pay 3000 yuan (approximately US$370) to the courts, which in effect came from the patients' pockets. Many details had to be attended to ensure the success of the kidney transplant. The executioners were ordered to raise their guns so that bullets would not damage the brainstem, which controls breathing and heart beat. This would ensure that while the kidney stays at normal body temperature it would also have sufficient blood supply, because the kidney is an organ which is most sensitive to blood pressure changes. This would help with performing a successful operation. They were also asked to not use exploding bullets to avoid a speedy loss of blood. Otherwise, the dead body would lose all its blood before the kidney was removed, which decreases the transplant's success rate.

The collaboration among doctors who take part in harvesting the organ is vital. They have to race against time to do their own part--disinfecting, cutting open the body, pushing aside intestines, preparing washing equipment, etc. The kidney, when taken out, has to be connected immediately to the washing equipment to be cleansed. It has to be washed and squeezed simultaneously so that the blood in it will be pushed out and cleaned. It is considered "done" when it turns pale. Then the clean kidney is put into a germ-free solution in a plastic bag and iced. The transplant operation must be performed within 24 hours of the organ retrieval. When the kidneys are taken out successfully, the hospital will be informed by phone and prepare the patient for surgery.

Normally both kidneys are taken, with the left one preferred as it has longer blood vessels, which makes it easier for surgery. The right side kidney is removed too, in case the left one cannot be used due to pathological changes, damage, or deformity. They are both retrieved because a match has also been found for another patient; thus two patients are prepared for operations at the same time. This way, the hospital will be able to reduce its costs.

The deprived bodies may still have signs of life such as a heartbeat and respiration, but they are placed into prepared plastic bags all the same and sent to crematories for immediate cremation. The whole process is conducted under supervision, and the watchman deposits the box containing the ashes with the crematory. A deposit receipt is later hand-delivered to the court. In turn, the court also collects a fee from the family of the deceased for disposing of the dead body. But the missing parts in the dead body will forever remain a mystery to the family, as by now, all evidence has been destroyed."

When finished with his training at the General Hospital of the Army, Dr. Hu started his own work doing kidney transplants at the Tiexi Hospital of Anshan Steep Corp. He invited doctors from the army hospital to help in his first surgery, but in the second, he completed it with the assistance of his own staff only. Those involved in the project included then hospital president Feng Yuhua, Party secretary Bi Zuosheng, director of the urological department Xu Yanzhen and deputy director Zhang Quanbao, and head nurse Zhang Jing. The city court of Anshan provided the kidney from a young male death-sentence convict who was about 20 years old. He did not know that his kidney would be removed as he was among many inmates whose blood samples were taken. (In prison, blood samples are taken only from those who agree to blood withdrawal.) The two patients, one male and one female, who were waiting for a blood match at the time, were both from well-to-do families and the company they were with, the Anshan Steel Corp., agreed to pay the surgery expenses. "As it turned out, the female patient, whose name, if I remember correctly was He Yuxin, was a match while the male patient didn't. So only the female patient could receive the transplant operation. The male patient later sought help from the army hospital in vain, and allegedly committed suicide on his bus ride home."

"The key to the success of the surgery is to find a matching donor. A mismatch is bound to fail because of rejection. The matching procedure is also quite complicated: the recipient and the donor must match not only in blood type, but also in histocompatibility. In other words, they must have compatible white cells. Incapable of doing the job itself, the Tiexi Hospital of Anshan Steel Corp. had to conduct this test at the General Hospital of the Army. During the test, a chemical solution - DTZ diatrizoate is added to the blood samples, which then undergo centrifuge to isolate the white cells, which, after being drawn out through a suction tube, will be cleansed of plasma and measured for its density. A set amount of mixed white cells from both the recipient and the donor will be placed in an incubator to be determined later how many white cells will die in the end. Since it is the lymph cells that are checked, the procedure is called "lymphocyte cytotoxicity test." The accuracy of the test, which requires a lot of experience, determines the success of the kidney transplant, and not many hospitals are able to do it. It can be deduced, therefore, that the secret prison in Sujiatun must have kept frequent contact with the General Hospital of the Army, since the two are close in distance to one another. At least, the army hospital would provide technical support in matching tests to the prison. I hope that the international community will investigate the army hospital.

The Army hospital reported that the result of the lymphocyte cytotoxicity test for the female patient was 1.5 %, meaning a white cell match had occurred and the surgery could proceed. On the morning of the scheduled surgery, an ambulance from the Tiexi Hospital of Anshan Steel Corp. waited outside the court. The prison police picked up the inmate and took him into the court. Not long after, the convict, now sentenced to death by the court, was pushed out, hands and arms bound behind his back. Before he was pushed onto the prison vehicle which would take him to the execution ground, an anaesthetist of the hospital, Chen Xiaofei, gave him a quick shot on his buttock through his pants. The medicinal liquid injected included two small bottles of heparin, used to prevent his blood from clotting so as to ensure the quality of the kidneys when taken out. The transplant operation for the female patient turned out to be a success and afterwards she was placed in a sterile ward with intensive care. She was later discharged from the hospital.

The First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University has also performed many kidney transplant surgeries. In 1994, under the auspices of Director Gao Chunzhang of the Urology Department, Dr. Song Xishuang performed a kidney transplant surgery on a patient who had been under the care of Dr. Li Quanlin. The convict whose kidney was used eventually became nothing but a chunk of meat, because not only his kidneys were removed, but also his testicles, bones, cornea, and skin were taken by doctors of various specialities for their own purposes. No one knew what happened to the corpse, since the family of the deceased could not afford the fee for the body disposal. (Families of death row convicts in China are reportedly required to pay more than 2000 yuan--approximately US$250-- in body disposal fees now.)

The hospitals in China, in their search for novelty, peculiarity, and uniqueness, constantly develop new projects as the research develops. Driven by the pursuit of fame and material gains, doctors in these hospitals quietly engage in businesses that violate human rights under the pretext that China does not have laws prohibiting the taking of human organs. If this development is allowed to continue, everyone's rights will be violated, everyone's dignity will be lost, everyone's organs risk being removed, and everyone faces the possibility of being wrongfully sentenced to death just because some wealthy and powerful people need organ transplants.

The articles on kidney transplants by the General Hospital of the Army published on the Urological Journal of China are all about experiences drawn from surgeries using kidneys taken from death row convicts. One of the authors in the journal is Xiangjun. In fact, his family name--Ren, if only it could be confirmed--was deliberately omitted to cover his family background of a high ranking official. As to how many kidney transplants they've performed, readers may take a look at the Urological Journal of China for the numbers.

The Friendship Hospital of Dalian (Chinese name Dalian You Yi Hospital), unwilling to be left behind, hired talent from the General Hospital of the Army and launched a kidney transplant program of its own. Because of the requirement by the hospital, kidney removal is strictly required to be done within three minutes after the gunshot. Doctors in Shanghai are the envy of their counterparts elsewhere, because the execution grounds in Shanghai are built underground so that the medical personnel can arrive early and get everything ready unrushed. That is why the kidneys taken in Shanghai are known to be of high quality.

Now, all places are dwarfed by the secret concentration camp in Sujiatun, where kidneys can be harvested from live bodies!

There are reports that more than 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners are being secretly held at Sujiatun and their lives are at stake. We can no longer sit idly by and watch. If necessary, I am willing to step forward and testify to the above facts with a view to stop the evil and save lives."