Patient records
Name: Ivan Petrov (pseudonym)
Age: 52 years old
Nationality: Russian
Diagnosis: Decompensated stage of hepatitis B cirrhosis complicated with hepatocellular carcinoma (within Milan criteria).
Treatment Hospital: Renji Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine
For patients with end-stage liver disease, the cruelest verdict is often not the disease itself, but the realization that "you urgently need a liver transplant, but you have no donor and cannot afford to wait." Ivan's story begins in this desperate race against time.
1. A sudden storm: When liver function begins to fail
Mr. Ivan, from Moscow, Russia, is a resolute retired engineer. His long history of chronic hepatitis B, like a ticking time bomb buried deep within his body, ultimately pushed his health to the brink. During a comprehensive medical checkup, he was diagnosed with decompensated cirrhosis due to hepatitis B, complicated by early-stage liver cancer. This diagnosis meant his liver function was severely failing, and he was at risk of developing fatal complications such as ascites, jaundice, or even massive bleeding at any time. Even more worrying was that although the malignant tumor on his liver was still in its early stages, given his fragile liver function, any conventional anti-cancer treatment would be tantamount to "throwing a stone into a trap."
The top hospitals in Moscow concluded that the disease was progressing rapidly, with no effective conservative treatment options available, and that living donor liver transplantation was the only possible cure. However, in Russia, due to limitations in donor availability, surgical scheduling, and experience with specific surgical techniques, performing a living donor liver transplant is extremely difficult and involves a long waiting period, and Mr. Ivan's condition did not allow him to wait.
Mr. Ivan's family refused to give up. His daughter, a lawyer working in St. Petersburg, turned her attention to the East—China. She learned that China's liver transplant technology, especially living donor liver transplantation, had reached world-leading levels in both the number of surgeries and the success rate. After extensive research, she found us and put forward a goal that carried the hopes of her entire family: "Please help me find a hospital and experts in China who can perform a living donor liver transplant for my father. We need to go to China as soon as possible."
2. Our Value: Building a Precise Bridge Amidst the Fog of "Information Asymmetry"
Upon receiving this urgent request for assistance, we were keenly aware that living donor liver transplantation is a highly complex procedure involving the lives of both the donor and recipient, and it requires rigorous medical and ethical approval. As a third-party healthcare service company, our primary task was to leverage our core strengths in communication, coordination, and medical record management to conduct a precise and efficient remote assessment by Sino-Russian liver transplant experts.
Our medical team immediately activated the emergency response mechanism:
First, the standardized translation and organization of medical records. This is the cornerstone of our service. All of Mr. Ivan's Russian medical records, including high-resolution CT/MRI image originals, pathology reports, blood test results, and summaries of previous treatments, were accurately translated by our professional medical translation team. We do more than just translate the text; we also reorganize and create standardized multilingual medical record summaries that meet the requirements of Chinese hospitals, ensuring that Chinese experts can efficiently and accurately grasp all the information and avoid misjudgments due to information errors or omissions.
Secondly, precise matching and efficient communication. Based on Mr. Ivan's condition, we precisely matched him with the Liver Transplant Center of Renji Hospital affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from our vast network of top medical resources in China . This center has the world's largest case cohort and extensive experience in liver transplantation for hepatitis B-related end-stage liver disease and liver cancer. We were responsible for all preliminary communication with the hospital's international department, submitting medical records, and coordinating the remote consultation time.
Third, the entire remote consultation was coordinated. During the remote consultation, our experienced Russian-Chinese medical interpreter accompanied the patient throughout, ensuring every word of communication between the doctor and patient was accurate and error-free. After carefully reviewing all the materials we had compiled, the Chinese expert team gave a clear and affirmative answer: "The patient's diagnosis is clear, meeting the medical indications for living donor liver transplantation, and the condition is progressing rapidly, requiring surgery as soon as possible. Please immediately initiate donor evaluation and the process of bringing the patient to China." This conclusion, like a lighthouse in the darkness, pointed the way for Ivan's family.
3. Full-process escort: A life-saving relay across borders
The positive conclusion from the remote assessment led Ivan's family to immediately decide to have the surgery in China. Next, our services entered a full-scale, on-the-ground phase, where we, as their most reliable coordinator, paved every step of the way for this cross-border life-saving relay.
Coordinating the entire process of donor evaluation and ethical approval is the most crucial step in living donor liver transplantation. We assisted Mr. Ivan's daughter (the volunteer donor) in completing the initial health screening in Russia and submitted all the necessary documents, after compiling and translating them, to the ethics committee of the Chinese hospital. We continuously monitored the approval progress, promptly supplementing the hospital with any required documents and communicating the pre-approval results to the family as soon as possible to ensure the efficient progress of the process.
A streamlined visa and travel process was implemented. We provided the patient and their family with a detailed checklist of required visa documents and assisted them in obtaining emergency medical visas. Simultaneously, we coordinated seamless transportation from Moscow to the surgical hospital in China, ensuring the critically ill patient arrived safely and quickly.
Seamless coordination between hospital admission and preoperative preparation. Upon arrival, our senior medical translators accompanied the patient throughout the entire process, assisting with all the detailed examinations for both the donor and recipient, including 3D liver reconstruction, vascular imaging, and cardiopulmonary function assessments. We were responsible for translating and organizing all examination results in real time, ensuring the attending physician was always up-to-date. The translation team ensured that every communication between the doctor and patient was accurate and error-free, allowing the family to fully understand the surgical plan and risks.
Living and emotional support. We arranged comfortable accommodations for family members near the hospital and assigned service specialists familiar with Russian culture to provide daily care and emotional support, allowing them to feel the warmth of home even in a foreign land and to fully support their loved ones.
4. Post-diagnosis services and follow-up: Safeguarding the long-term health of "two lives"
The successful surgery is only the first step in a long journey. For us, the real challenge lies in the long-term "dual-line management" after the surgery:
Recipient Line: Liver Function and Anti-Rejection Management. We established a "Post-Liver Transplant Follow-up File" for Mr. Ivan, collecting his liver function, immunosuppressant blood concentration, tumor marker, and other test results monthly via remote follow-up. Our case manager compiles this data into trend charts, and immediately activates alerts upon detecting any abnormalities, assisting in contacting Chinese experts for remote adjustments.
Donor Care: Liver Regeneration and Psychological Support for Our Daughter. We also established a "Post-Donor Health Record" for our daughter, regularly monitoring her liver regeneration, incision healing, blood tests, and liver function. More importantly, we paid attention to her mental state, proactively inquiring about her emotions and sleep during each follow-up visit, and advising her to seek professional psychological support when necessary.
Regular follow-up examinations in China are scheduled. Based on the transplant center's follow-up plan, we arrange for the father and daughter to return to China annually for check-ups, including liver ultrasound, vascular imaging, and adjustments to immunosuppressants. All examination results are compiled into an "Annual Follow-up Report" by our case manager and simultaneously sent to the transplant team in China and their family doctor in Russia.
5. Treatment Effects and Reflections
Years after the surgery, Mr. Ivan's liver function remained normal, and his tumor markers remained negative. He regained a high quality of life. In a thank-you letter to us, his daughter wrote: "You are not doctors, but you are the ones who helped us find doctors and accompanied us through this most difficult journey. Thank you for allowing my father's life to continue in another country."