Shanghai's Renji Hospital performs first liver transplant on Filipino child

"Renji Hospital not only gave my child a new life, but also made us feel the warmth of home," said the child's father, who preferred not to be named.

As the world's largest pediatric liver transplant center, Renji Hospital has completed over 3,800 surgeries of this kind, with postoperative survival rate of the minor patients leading internationally, said Xia.

"We have always upheld the notion that 'medicine knows no borders' and have been at the forefront of promoting the clinical application and popularization of Chinese liver transplant technology in Southeast Asia," he said.

In 2019, Renji Hospital partnered with the University of Malaya Medical Centre in Malaysia to establish an overseas office and kick off an international training program for pediatric living donor liver transplantation technology.

Over the past decade, the Renji team has not only systematically trained more than 50 liver transplant specialists from Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia among others, but also jointly completed Malaysia's first pediatric living donor liver transplant surgery. Their endeavors have saved a total of 55 critically ill foreign children.

The success of this first pediatric liver transplant in the Philippines signified an upgrade in China-Philippines medical cooperation from technology export to system co-construction and is of great significance especially when the two countries celebrate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year, Xia said.