Gao Zhenli

Summary
Gao Zhenli, a second-level professor and doctoral supervisor, is currently the Director of the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) at Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital and the former Director of the Organ Transplant Center. Gao Zhenli began leading the organ transplant center at Yuhuangding Hospital in 2004. That year, he personally completed 114 kidney transplants and 2 pancreas-kidney combined transplants. In 2005, he completed 160 kidney transplants, 163 in 2006, 108 in 2007, 132 in 2008, and over 120 in 2009. Starting in 2004, the organ transplant center at Yuhuangding Hospital saw rapid development, with the annual number of organ transplant surgeries ranking first in the province.

Phone investigations revealed that the hospital does not deny using organs from Falun Gong practitioners, can provide young donors, has short waiting times, unclear donor sources, and a large number of organ transplants.

In view of the broader background of the Chinese Communist Party's state crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, since Yantai Yuhuangding Hospital has been involved in the crime, Gao Zhenli, the hospital's director of the Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) and the former Director of the Organ Transplant Center, is a major suspect.

Organ transplantation tops the four signature technologies at Yantai City Yuhuangding Hospital.[1] In 2004, the organ transplantation programs (kidney, heart, liver, and pancreas-kidney combined transplants) have developed rapidly, and the hospital’s annual transplant number ranked first in Shandong Province.[2]

The hospital has a particularly large number of patient beds in its transplant programs, and its urology department has a kidney transplant ICU, an organ transplantation laboratory, and a tissue typing unit. More than 100 kidney transplant surgeries are done per year (there're now more than 1,000 accumulated cases of kidney transplants) with 100 beds.[3]

Telephone Investigation: Doctors in the Hospital did not deny using organs from Falun Gong practitioners; young donors are available; the wait time is short; the source of organs is unknown; and the organ transplant number is large.

1. Director of Organ Transplant Program didn’t deny the ongoing usage of organs from Falun Gong practitioners

Investigation Respondent: Liu Dongfu, Director of Kidney Transplant Program, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai City, Shandong Province

Investigation Date: November 8, 2018 (+86-13853501608)

(Recording 1 play and download MP3; for complete recording transcript see Attachment 4.)

Summary: 

 Liu Dongfu: We may have it (kidney source) as fast as tomorrow. It could be done as fast as within a week. If not that fast, we may have to wait for two months; in two months we’ll have it.

Investigator: The best would be using the type from, Falun Gong practitioners, I mean, the donors in normal conditions.

Liu Dongfu: About that, listen to me, we’ll talk about it after you come here.

Liu Dongfu’s profile: Chief surgeon, professor; member at deputy director level of Yantai Branch, urology surgery of the Chinese Medical Association(CMA);  member at deputy director level of the Organ Transplant Association in Shandong Province, and Deputy Director of the Organ Transplant Center, Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai. [4]

2. The hospital has super short wait times and could provide young donors

Investigation Respondent: Director Wang, organ coordinator with Kidney Transplant Program, Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai, Shandong[5]

Investigation Date: May 26, 2017 (+86-13181994782) 

Summary:

Director Wang: Waiting for kidney donation and getting the surgery done, including all the tests, will take less than half a month—all within two weeks at the most.

 The fees here would be 400,000 yuan, and another 100,000 yuan would be given to the hospital. We’d have to find a donor under the age of 30, you get what you pay for, understand?

(Recording 3 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript, please see pdf Attachment 1)

Investigation Respondent: Director Wang, organ coordinator of Kidney Transplant Program, Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai, Shandong[6]

Investigation Date: June 10, 2017 (+86-13181994782)   

Summary: 

Investigator: What’s the wait time for a donated organ?

Director Wang: For blood type B patients, it’s one week, within 10 days.

Investigator: What about the organ quality?

Director Wang: It’ll come from a young person.

Investigator: Is it donated organ? 

Director Wang: Where could we find that many donated organs? We have our own channels.

Investigator: You get them via the state’s organ website?

Director Wang: Those are all scams, all of them! Those are all formalities. That website is inaccessible. It’s all for armed police, it’s not like anyone could access it.

(Recording 3 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see Attachment 2 )

Investigation Respondent:  Dr. Li, Organ Coordinator, Kidney Transplant, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[7]

Investigation Date: April 18, 2017 (18660597760)

Summary:

Doctor Li: “There are many cases of blood type B patients. It can be done very fast.”“We have several blood type B patients here who have just had their transplants done, within half a month.”

(Recording 4 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript, please see Attachment 3)

Investigation Respondent: Dr. Li, Organ Coordinator, Kidney Transplant, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[8]

Investigation Date: April 18, 2017   (+86+ 535_6691999)

Summary:
Doctor Li: It won’t take half a month before the surgery can be done. Our director has done 2,000 plus surgeries.

(Recording 5 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript, please see Attachment 34)

Investigation Respondent: Doctor Shan Zhenfei, Kidney Transplant, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[9]

Investigation Date: April 25, 2017   (+86 535 6691 999)

Summary:

Doctor Shan Zhenfei: “I can only tell you that this year is better than last year, [in terms of the transplant volume].”  (Last year, the hospital performed more than 200 cases.)

“The wait time here is very short. We have a lot [of donor organs] here. Patients from other provinces are staying in our hospital here.”

(Recording 6 download: MP3, and for complete recording transcript, please see Attachment 35)

Investigation Respondent: Nurse, Kidney Transplant Inpatient Service, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[10]

Investigation Date: December 9, 2019 (+86-535-6691999)

Summary:

Nurse: For some patients, it could be done in just over a week, while others might not get it after waiting for more than two months, so it depends.

(Recording 7 download MP3; transcript download: pdf170)

3. The city Red Cross said they didn’t provide donors. Organ procurement coordinator of the hospital said donors were not allocated from the national organ network.

Investigation Respondent: Office Staff on Duty, Red Cross of Yantai City, Shandong Province[11]

Investigation Date: April 21, 2017 (+86 0535 2123999)   
Summary:           
Investigator: Last year Yuhuangding Hospital did 270 cases of kidney transplants. Did they get the organs from the Red Cross?
Staff on duty: Certainly not. How could there be that many?
(Recording 8 download: MP3，and for complete recording transcript please see Attachment 101)

Investigation Respondent: Staff on duty, Office of Human Organ Donation, the Red Cross of Yantai City, Shandong Province

Investigation Date: January 16, 2018  (+86-5352123999)
Summary:
Staff-on-duty: There are no places that have many donated organs! We only take care of the registration part. We are not concerned with how the organs will be used, how they are obtained, or how they are allocated. Those are not our responsibilities! Yuhuangding Hospital has its own channels to procure organs. Not all their organs are donated. There are only a few dozen organs that are donated by us, but they have done hundreds, even thousands of transplant surgeries! The ones donated from us are relatively small in number, in comparison to those they get from their own channels, and it doesn’t have anything to do with us. We the Red Cross do not trace where their organs come from. We are not police or anything like that...we don’t know!...[12]
(Recording 9 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see pdf attachment)

Investigation Respondent: Director Wang, Organ Coordinator, Kidney Transplant Program, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[13]

Investigation Date: June 10, 2017 (+86-13181994782)

Summary:

Investigator: How long is the wait time for kidney transplant?

Director Wang:  For blood type B patients, it’s one week, within ten days.

Investigator: What about the quality of the donated organ?

Director: It’ll be from young people.

Investigator: Is it going to be an organ from a voluntary donor?

Director Wang: How can there be that many voluntarily donated organs?  But we have our own channels.

Investigator:  Will it be taken from national organ network?

Director Wang: That’s all deceiving people, all of it. It’s only a formality. That website is inaccessible. It belongs to the armed police. It’s not like that anyone can access it.

(Recording 10 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see Attachment 2)

4. Telephone investigation shows large volume of organ transplants performed at the hospital

Investigation Respondent: Nurse, Kidney Transplantation Center, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[14]

Investigation Date: May 21, 2018 (+865356691999, ext. 83947)

Summary:

Nurse: The hospital can perform 300 to 400 cases of kidney transplants per year, and last year over 300 cases were done. The cost for such a surgery is about 400,000 yuan.

(Recording 11 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see pdf attachment)

Investigation Respondent:  Doctor Li, Kidney Transplant, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[15]

Investigation Date: April 18, 2017 (+86+ 5356691999)           
Summary:
Doctor Li: The surgery can be done within half a month. Our director does it and has done over 2,000 cases.
(Recording 12 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see Attachment 34)

Investigation Respondent: Li Dapeng, Surgeon of Nephrology, Yuhuangding Hospital, Yantai, Shandong[16]

Investigation Date: May 21, 2018 (+86 15506657777）

Summary:

Doctor Li: 300 kidney transplants were done last year. I’ll give you a phone number, and explain the fees to you over phone. We have patients from all over the country, including those from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. There is no need to say so much over the phone! You just come to the hospital and see Director Liu Dongfu. There are a lot of directors in the organ transplant program.[17]

(Recording 13 download: MP3; for complete recording transcript please see pdf attachment)

References

[1] Introduction of Hepatobiliary Surgery, the Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai City. Retrieved from

http://www.ytyhdyy.com/products_list/&pmcId=50.html
WOIPFG Archived Link:http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/cn/images/nationalcriminalreports/757.pdf

[2] Profile of Gao Zhenli, the Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai City. Retrieved from http://www.ytyhdyy.com/products_detail/&productId=249.html
WOIPFG Archived Link:
http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/cn/images/nationalcriminalreports/758.png

[3] Introduction of Urology Surgery, the Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai City.
WOIPFG Archived Link:
http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/sites/default/files/report/2016/64700_064004.png

[4] Good Doctors Online: http://360wenda.haodf.com/doctor/DE4r08xQdKSLFhILFNv5LwmK7DLi.htm
Link to WOIPFG files: http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/media/2019/0712/SC41.pdf

[5] WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[6]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[7]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[8]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[9]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[10] WOIPFG’s Comprehensive Investigation Results regarding the Chinese Communist Party’s Live Organ Harvesting of Falun Dafa Practitioners (2019)

 http://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/125981

[11]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)   https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[12]《追查国际对中共活摘法轮功学员器官现状调查报告（五）》 

https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/96870

[13]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[14]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (V)   https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/96870

[15]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (III)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/72524

[16]WOIPFG Investigative Report on CCP’s Ongoing Live Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners’ Organs (V)  https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/96870

[17]《追查国际对中共活摘法轮功学员器官现状调查报告（五）》

https://www.zhuichaguoji.org/node/96870