Li Yu, a 39-year-old Chinese citizen, is the country's first person to undergo a successful emergency liver transplant operation, in which he received part of his sister's liver.

Li was discharged on Wednesday from Jiangsu People's Hospital, one of the leading hospitals in Jiangsu Province, east China.

Medical experts said that a similar operation was done in the United States only last July.

Qiu Zufa, honorary president of the Organ Transplant Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, said the successful operation represented a major technological breakthrough in China in the field of organ transplants.

Doctors noted that Li was in such a critical condition that he fell into a coma on February 15 due to liver failure and that the only way to rescue his life was to transplant part of a donor's liver.

Li Fang, his younger sister, volunteered to donate the right part of her liver for her brother on May 17.

Some 620 gram (1.4 lb) of her liver were then transplanted into her brother's body. The operation lasted 16 hours.

Li Yu has now recovered completely from the operation and his previous symptoms have disappeared.

(People's Daily May 16, 2002)