Doctors arrested after woman’s kidneys, liver illegally transplanted

Six doctors were arrested in Anhui province after a woman’s kidneys and liver were illegally transplanted.

Yang Suxun, former director of the Intensive Care Unit Department at Huaiyuan County People’s Hospital, and five other doctors from a hospital in Jiangsu province, were arrested, local police confirmed with news website ThePaper.cn on Tuesday.

The donor, Li Ping, 53, was pronounced brain dead on Feb 15 last year, five days after being attacked by her eldest son during a family dispute. Her husband and younger son were also severely injured.

The eldest son was sentenced to 14 years and eight months in prison for intentional homicide.

According to her medical record, her husband and daughter agreed that her liver and kidneys be donated.

The consent form, which they signed, aroused suspicion from the younger son, Shi Xianglin, who noticed that the form had no seal or donation number.

“According to my sister, doctors informed her that our mother’s condition was serious and she could not be saved. If they agreed to donate her organs, our family would get 200,000 yuan ($28,500) as a subsidy,” Shi said.

According to ThePaper, three months after he recovered from his injuries, Shi visited China Organ Donation Administrative Center in Beijing.

“Staff from the center told me that information about organs donated through regular procedures can be traced in their system, but they couldn’t find my mother’s information,” he said.

According to Chen Hu, an employee at the Red Cross Society of China’s branch office in Huaiyuan county, organ donations should be free and voluntary, and the health department will not give subsidies to a donor’s family.

Police records show that a hospital in Beijing conducted an examination on Li’s liver five days after her donation, and another hospital in Tianjin conducted an examination on her kidneys nine days after the donation.

According to Shi, his family members received 200,000 yuan from a person named Huang Chaoyang one day after the donation.

“Yang (the ICU director) told me that he helped to apply for the subsidy and 200,000 was the highest level released by the health department,” Shi said.

In June last year, Shi reported the case to the local health department, and said Yang had given him 460,000 yuan through a third party as hush money.

In April this year, the central government sent a supervision group to Anhui to crack down on organized crime, and Shi reported the case to the group.

“Around 20 percent of my patients are men. Some want to remove acne and look better in wedding pictures, while others who are troubled by baldness hope to look younger through hair transplants,” said Zhang Hui, a dermatologist with a Beijing-based private cosmetic hospital.

Doctors found that hair transplants, removing bags under the eye, acne treatment and dental orthodontics were the most commonly requested procedures for male clients.

Wang Jun, vice-president of the marketing department of Gengmei, admitted that there is a rising trend of young men resorting to aesthetic medicine, and most of their male customers are in their 20s.

Societal pressure and the misconception that being beautiful is a shortcut to success are often cited by patients as the reasons for cosmetic surgery.

“Some people just want to please themselves, while others hope to improve their odds in job hunting or dating,” Wang said.

Chang Li, a 39-year-old orthopedic surgeon in Beijing, receives three intradermal injections to improve his facial skin each year. To his satisfaction, he looks much younger than others his age.

He said that men are under the same social pressures as women and their confidence and competitiveness would be somewhat weakened by facial and body defects.

“Why not reduce the signs aging if you can?” he asked.

Chen Jingwei, a 21-year-old lifestyle blogger, shared his experience undergoing plastic surgeries including a nose job, facial implants and chin surgery in the past three years.

Quite a few male followers left questions such as: “How much does the eyelid surgery cost?”, “I’m a guy and I want to change my nose, which hospital should I choose?”, and “Did you have jaw implants or simply have fillers injected?”

However, experts have pointed out the risks of cosmetic surgery.

Fan Jufeng, director of the Plastic Surgery Department at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, does not encourage people — men or women — to “blindly” go under the knife.

According to the National Health Commission, a total of 2,772 cases related to illegal plastic surgery were handled by China’s health departments during a yearlong crackdown that started in May 2017.

Fan also warned the public of the negative impact of livestreaming celebrities who promote the misconception that being pretty trumps all else.

“Whether to have cosmetic procedures is a personal choice, but people should not develop an addiction to it,” Fan said. “After all, a rich and beautiful inner world is far more important than a pretty face.” of