China's first infant heart transplant surgery turned out to be a complete success in Jinan, east China's Shandong Province. The 8-month-old infant has lived through the crisis peacefully 61 days after the surgery and recovered normally. The success of the surgery has filled in the gap in the field of infant heart transplant.

Zhang Gengchun, the infant patient from Xintai, Shandong province, suffered from severe cyanotic heart disease. His aorta and pulmonary artery was displaced, and he only has one atria with ventricular septal defect. Diagnosis by several hospitals says his heart disease condition is so complicated that the only cure is heart transplant.

After successful experience on animals, Jinan military cardiovascular institute worked out a surgery plan for the infant patient. Qiao Bin, the main operator transplanted a healthy heart into Zhang and the surgery took five hours.

The operation was very successful and Zhang could sit on the bed and eat one day after the surgery.

(People's Daily March 3, 2006)