Statistics show that last year, around 300,000 patients in China were waiting for organ transplants. Although modern transportation has already saved many hours in shipping the donated organs, it was still a nerve-wrecking race against time for many surgeons until a fast-track channel opened weeks ago.

Half an hour in advance, the life-saving lung arrived just in time. For transplant surgeries, every passing second could mean the difference between life and death, after the organ is removed from its donors.

At about 6 a.m. in Qingdao, the donated lung was safely stowed. The medical team then rushed to the local airport and got on a 7:20 flight to Shanghai

The flight arrived about 30 minutes earlier, where the team rescheduled to take a nearest high-speed rail train and made it at WuXi People's hospital at 10:30, five and a half hours after the organ removed.

"We removed the lung from the donor and kept it in cold storage. The shipping usually takes us about 6 hours. After the organ arrives in hospital, the whole surgery process, including preparation, takes another 5 hours,"

"Generally speaking, we hope the transplant can be accomplished within 12 hours. So the shipping hours are very precious to us. There cannot be any delay, or it may directly lead to an operation failure," said Chen Jingyu, Deputy Head of Wuxi People's Hospital.

This time, the surgeons make it. But often they fail almost every time, according to Dr. Chen, in this nerve-wrecking race against time.

Last October, the medical team carrying donated lungs, missed a flight from Guangzhou due to a traffic jam.

The team arrived 15 minutes before the flight departure time, and was refused to be let on board.

Dr. Chen has written to the National People’s Congress, urging to set up a "fast-track channel" for transporting donated organs.

The country's Civil Aviation authorities have issued a notification weeks ago, putting the channel into effect.

"We have asked the airport in Qingdao for support and cooperation, and we applied for a priority to guarantee flights can take off on time,"

"As long as this achieved, the pilot during the flight can make special requests for temporary or direct air routes to air traffic control, which could shorten flight time as much as possible," said Wu Wanyuan, Head of Dept. of Publicity, Shandong Airlines.

Other changes are also under way. To transport donated organs quickly and safely, the system will also be supported by the country's Public Security Bureau, railways, and even shipping companies.

And Health Commission officials are setting up a network to create a centralized organ pool and distribution system.

It's a race against time, not just for certain medical teams, but for the whole country to battle.

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