THE first liver transplant between two unrelated people was successfully carried out in Southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Luo Wei, a 19-year-old young woman, decided to donate part of her liver to Liao Hongxia after learning from the mass media about Liao's condition.

Liao, 34 years old, is a farmer from Pujiang, a county near Chengdu. She was hospitalized in Huaxi Hospital on March 1 suffering from cirrhosis.

Four days later, her husband, Zhang Yuanlin, told a newspaper he would sell one of his kidneys to raise funds to save his wife's life.

The hospital agreed to offer free medical treatment to Liao, because in 2001 its liver transplant centre announced it would help three poor people by offering free liver transplant operations.

In late 2001, a five-year-old girl in Neijiang, Sichuan, became the first person to benefit from the scheme. After the paper reported Liao's story, the centre decided to help her.

All the members of Zhang's family wanted to donate part of their livers to Liao. But only the blood type of Liao's 62-year-old father-in-law, Zhang Guowen, was a match. Using his liver, however, was ruled out because of his age.

At that point Luo, who read their story in the newspaper, decided to step in.

Luo, a native of Cangxi County in Sichuan, works at the Tiancai Furniture Factory in Chengdu's Jinniu District.

"There were two reasons why I wanted to help," Luo said.

When she saw the picture of Zhang Guowen, she thought her face resembled that of her grandfather. Also, she did not want to see Liao's 12-year-old daughter without a mother.

The operation on March 30 lasted 10 hours and proved successful.

"I was against my daughter's decision before the operation," said Luo's father Hu Zhongshuang. "I was thinking as a father. Now she has turned out fine, I am happy for her kindness. Also, we have received 120,000 yuan (US$14,457) as a donation, which can provide good nutrition for her recovery."

According to Yan Lunan, director of the Liver Transplant Centre of Huaxi Hospital, Luo was the country's first person to donate an organ to a stranger.

China has no law governing organ donations. Each year, there are more than 1,000 liver transplants in the country. Because there is a limited number of livers donated, many people die each year waiting for an operation.

(Star News)