This hospital’s organ transplant center mainly focuses on liver transplantation. It conducted its first liver transplant at the end of 2001. In 2004, it carried out the first secondary liver transplant in northeastern China. In 2006, it performed its first living-donor liver transplant between adults.597
The center has collaborated with the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic (HPB) Surgery Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Medical University to conduct remote medical consultation. It established a communication platform with the University of Heidelberg in Germany to further develop the discipline. The hospital employed Zheng Shusen, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery, as a part-time academician.
Professor Tian Xiaofeng, doctoral advisor, is the hospital’s current president and director of the general surgery department. He took the lead in clinical and basic research in organ transplantation in the region, led the department to complete its first liver and combined pancreas-kidney transplants, including living-donor liver transplants, secondary liver transplants, and other complicated cases. The department’s capabilities have thus achieved a nationally advanced level.598
Wang Liming, MD, PhD, is the hospital’s vice president and director of its transplant center. He “is mainly engaged in organ transplantation, general clinical surgery and scientific research. As the leading specialist in Liaoning Province, he carries out orthotopic liver, living-donor liver, kidney, pancreas-kidney, and living-donor kidney transplants. He has obtained a number of leading technical achievements that have filled a gap in Dalian’s medical history.”599
During the three months after the organ harvesting crimes were exposed in 2006, patients paid only 50,000 RMB for transplants at this hospital. Doctors traveled in special vehicles provided by the hospital to pick up donor livers.600
The hospital is also notable because the father of the plastination procedure, Gunther Von Hagens, accepted a visiting professorship at Dalian Medical University in 1996. Although he initially complained about not receiving an adequate supply of fresh cadavers on which to do his experiments, by 1999 von Hagens had received an honorary citizen award from Dalian mayor Bo Xilai and started his first plastination company. Von Hagens’ Chinese partner Sui Hongjin would ultimately run a company named Dalian Medical University Plastination. In 2003, von Hagens claimed that the Dalian plastination operation was responsible for 80% of his profits.601
The hospital has carried out kidney transplants since 1997. However, information regarding kidney transplantation is not available on its website.602
The chief physician of its ophthalmology department, Professor Zhao Fengrong, specializes in corneal transplantation. He won the Dalian New Technology Pharmaceutical Application Award for two corneal transplants he performed.603
Lei Xiaojun, associate professor and deputy chief physician of ophthalmology, studied under the tutelage of renowned ophthalmologist Professor Chen Jiaqi. Lei is renowned in his unique treatment of corneal diseases. He has completed many corneal transplants.604