This hospital is affiliated with Shanxi Medical University. It was established in 1958 and has 1,000 beds. It claimed to be first-class in Shanxi Province and number one in northern Shanxi. It has 192 staff with senior professional titles, 403 with intermediate titles, and 99 with PhD or master’s degrees.93
The hospital includes the Datong City Organ Transplant center. Since 1991, the hospital has carried out bone marrow, kidney, and other types of transplants. Its transplant team is filled with well-known experts and professionals, and the program has reached an advanced level domestically. The hospital began conducting liver transplants in 2004. In September 2003, the hospital hosted the Shanxi Provincial Organ Transplantation Conference.94 95
Li Haichao is the hospital’s vice president, one of the founders of its urologic surgery department, a member of the Chinese Medical Association Urologic Surgery Subcommittee’s Kidney Transplantation Group, and vice chairman of the Shanxi Medical Association’s Organ Transplant Committee. Li Rongjun, chief surgeon of the department, began conducting kidney transplants in 1999.96 Wei Xiuju, the department’s associate chief surgeon, began performing allogenic kidney transplants in 1998.97
After widespread of organ harvesting crimes were exposed in 2006 and this hospital was reported to overseas media, it deleted almost all information about its transplantation activities online. The hospital’s introduction reveals that it has begun to conduct liver transplants, but no further information is available. 98
However, the Fifth People’s Hospital of Datong City, which was not approved by the Ministry of Health in 2007 to conduct transplants, was carrying out liver transplants openly. Its website stated, “Based on the foundation of our development of multiple kidney transplants in recent years, the hospital demonstrated the city’s first liver transplant to reach an internationally advanced standard in October 2004.”