"LOCAL hospitals said a pilot program that encourages organ donation after cardiac death should greatly benefit patients with organ failure. However health authorities should work out a practical system to carry out the program which began this month. According to the Ministry of Health, all big hospitals qualified to do organ transplant can apply to provincial health bureau for a one-year license to perform organ transplant after a donor's cardiac death. Hospitals that performed more than ten transplants within one year can apply for a long-term license from the Organ Transplant Committee. Doctors said the practice can increase the number of organ transplants by seven times in China." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

Shanghai-based Canadian documentary photographer Ryan Pyle informs us:

It appears that Li Guoxing, the first recipient of a face transplant surgery in China as been confirmed dead. Li Guoxing received a face transplant surgery in 2006 from surgeon Guo Shuzhong in Xi'an, China. If you can remember Mr. Li, 30 years old when he had the surgery, had is face ripped off by a bear while hunting in rural Yunnan province where he lived in a small village community. Mr. Li's death, it has been said, was due to an infection because he wasn't taking prescribed immune-system drugs properly. Another report says he was favoring herbal medicines instead. No final report on the death will be available because Mr. Li has been buried for several months now, and no autopsy was completed. more ›