A relay to transport lifesaving human organs on Thursday marked new hope for several seriously ill patients and a new step for China's young but maturing transplantation program.

It was the first time a relay involving both a helicopter and a commercial jet had been attempted, and it was all made possible by the generosity of a grieving family who had just lost a young woman in the flower of youth.

In a hospital in Jiaxing in Zhejiang province, a 21-year-old woman named Liu Guoqun, who had sustained a mortal head injury in an accident on April 25, was declared brain dead by doctors after efforts to save her failed.