Heart transplants will be carried out on poor patients in Jilin Province for free, while others are to get help with their medical bills.

The operations will be the first heart transplants to be carried out in the province, with those in need in previous years having to travel to Beijing and other big cities to get it done -- and only a few of those able to afford the travel costs, let alone the medical bill.

The Jilin Provincial Health Bureau plans to launch the programme, which will also fill in the blanks in medical practice in Jilin. Jilin Heart Disease Hospital has now been authorized as an experimental unit to do the operation.

Trained professionals familiar with this kind of surgery and world-class medical instruments are all ready to receive their first patient. The programme is seeking both patients and heart donors.

Twenty-two-year-old Wang Cheng, a terminal heart disease patient from Jiangsu Province, is still not well even after having an operation in Shanghai.

Since his parents are farmers and he has been seeking treatment for four years, medical expenses have swallowed up all their savings and they are deep in debt.

"The doctor in Shanghai introduced me to Jilin, saying I could get a heart transplant for free here," Wang said.

Unfortunately, doctors say he has a liver disease that is so serious it might prevent them giving him a new heart.

China's first heart transplant took place in Shanghai in 1978.

So far 200 people have had the operation and now enjoy new lives, said Huang Jinsheng, president of Jilin Heart Disease Hospital.

"Nowadays, heart transplants are no longer a headache in the medical field, and more than 3,500 people have them every year around the world," he said.

The average charge for heart transplants in China is between 150,000 yuan (US$18,500) and 200,000 yuan (US$24,700).

(China Daily July 25, 2005)