【明報專訊】In August 2021, the first paired kidney transplant was completed in Hong Kong. Two pairs of patients and their family members underwent kidney extraction and transplantation in two hospitals at the same time. Four of them were discharged before the Mid-Autumn Festival in September. The patients no longer needed kidney dialysis. The operations involved two middle-aged couples. Kidney recipient A had undergone dialysis for nearly eight years. Family members wanted to donate organs twice, but their blood types were incompatible. The patient joined the matching pool at the beginning of the Paired Kidney Donation Pilot Programme and had been waiting for nearly three years, but his health was deteriorating, and was to have been removed from the waiting list. He described himself as very lucky for being able to participate in the paired transplant. One of the kidney recipients said that he was especially grateful to his wife for donating a kidney to a stranger, thus giving him a chance of rebirth.