Chinese man donates stem cells to save patient in Germany

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About 245 ml of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) were collected in four and a half hours in a hospital in the city of Wuhan on Monday. The HSCs will be used to save a 40-year-old patient in Germany.

Zheng Shimin in the hospital during the HSC collection process. /Chinanews Photo

The donor, 29-year-old Zheng Shimin, works in the limbs department of a hospital in the city of Shiyan. In 2015, he joined the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP) when donating blood.

Last November, CMDP concluded that a German patient with a hematological disorder was a match to Zheng Shimin HSCs. The success rate for a non-blood relationship between HSCs is very low.

"As a medical worker, I have touched too many patients and deeply understand their pain. That is why I agreed to donate my stem cells," said Zheng.

Zheng Shimin interviewed with Chinanews reporter. /Chinanews Photo

The Data Bank of Chinese Hematopoietic Stem Cell Donors, also known as the China Marrow Donor Program (CMDP), is a non-profit organization under the umbrella of the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC).

According to CMDP staff, cross-border donation procedures are much more complicated than domestic donations and can take longer.

From the time he was informed that he was a match to the completion of the donation, Zheng had gone back and forth from Shiyan to Wuhan nearly 10 times for procedures such as blood sampling, infectious disease monitoring and sampling and a comprehensive physical examination.

In recent years, with the improvement of the process for donating HSCs, more and more people have joined CMDP.

Zhang Sheng, a member of the CMDP staff said, “so far a total of 95,000 people in Hubei have joined the database of hematopoietic stem cells, successfully completed the donation of 335 cases, of which 14 cases of cross-border donations, involving S. Korea, Italy, Singapore, Canada, the United States and other countries and regions.”

1055km