China-aided hospital in Sri Lanka completes 1st organ transplant

COLOMBO, March 18 (Xinhua) -- A specialized nephrology hospital in Sri Lanka, built with the assistance of the Chinese government, has successfully performed a kidney transplant surgery from a living donor recently, the first of its kind since the operation of the hospital.

The China-Sri Lanka Friendship National Nephrology Hospital said the recipient of the transplant is a 28-year-old woman who had been suffering from kidney disease for 10 years and the kidney donator is her mother.

The mother and daughter are in stable condition after the surgery, and both the medical staff and patient are very satisfied with the results of the operation, according to the hospital.

Buddima Jayawickrama, a well-known transplant surgeon in Sri Lanka, who was in charge of the surgery, attributed the success of the operation to adequate preparation and close collaboration among all parties, as well as to the advanced and complete medical facilities of the hospital, especially giving credit to the technical team of the Chinese company that built the hospital for providing the hardware guarantee for the operation.

The success of this transplant surgery is a good start, which makes the hospital more confident to become an important platform for kidney transplant in Sri Lanka and South Asia, said Sampath Indika Kumara, director of the hospital.

The China-Sri Lanka Friendship National Nephrology Hospital, located in the ancient city of Polonnaruwa and officially opened in June 2021, has an area of 25,000 square meters, featuring 200 general inpatient beds, 100 hemodialysis beds.