CARDIAC surgeon Dr Jonathan Ho Kei-shing, charged with attempted murder for transplanting a pig's heart into a man at an Indian clinic, has denied the operation was a hoax.
Speaking to the Sunday Morning Post from his jail cell in Guwahati, capital of the northeastern state of Assam, Ho confirmed he had operated last month.
'I was working here for a few short weeks,' said the former Chinese University and Prince of Wales Hospital surgeon.
Ho and Indian surgeon Dr Dhani Ram Baruah were arrested after the 32-year-old patient, Purna Saikia, died of an infected pancreas, gall bladder and liver.
The pair were initially arrested for 'fraudulent practice' under the Transplantation of Human Organs Act, which bans unfounded claims of successful surgery in pioneering areas.
The charges were raised to 'attempt to murder' on January 10 - but confusion arose when the Government said Baruah claimed the surgery never took place. Authorities later said the transplant was carried out on a dead body.
Ho, who began working in Baruah's private clinic outside Guwahati late last year, headed a controversial ox tissue heart valve programme at the Prince of Wales hospital in 1992.