Dr. Chin-Su Liu, the director of the Department of Pediatric Surgery in Taipei Veterans General Hospital (VGH), has led a medical team to the Vietnam National Hospital of Pediatrics in Hanoi, Vietnam since 2007 to assist in multiple pediatric liver transplants.

In 2018, under the New Southbound Policy and the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s One Country One Center program, Taipei VGH has taken the responsibility for the Vietnam project. In 2019 alone, the medical team went to Vietnam and performed 3 liver transplants, one of which was the youngest and lightest infant in Vietnam’s medical history. 

A Vietnamese baby girl born in October 2019 was diagnosed with biliary atresia during the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020. After the diagnosis, her family did not choose to go with the Kasai procedure and her condition deteriorated and progressed to liver cirrhosis.

The original plan was for the Taipei VGH team to perform surgery, but travel restrictions due to the pandemic prevented the immediate execution of this plan. The baby's mother then took the initiative to contact Dr. Liu in May.

After evaluating that the baby was in urgent need of a liver transplant, an emergency application submitted to the Ministry of Health and Welfare was approved on July 14.

The baby was admitted to the negative pressure isolation intensive care unit of the hospital on July 20 and her mother who is also the organ donor was admitted to the negative pressure ward on July 24. The liver transplantation was performed on July 26.

After the operation, the baby was taken care of in the intensive care unit and was transferred to the general ward on August 14. The mother and baby were discharged on August 11 and September 4 in good health, respectively.