Medical workers ran into the hospital as soon as the helicopter landed in Zhengzhou, central-eastern China.
The box they were carrying contained a liver and two kidneys that had been donated by a man in the same province.
A surgeon emerged eight hours later to declare the liver transplant operation a success.
The wife of the male recipient looked relieved as she thanked the mystery donor and his family for saving her husband's life.
This touching account was covered by a satellite television channel run by the local province of Henan; one of many reports that have featured in the Chinese media over the past few months.
Those involved in the campaign to promote organ donations speak excitedly about upcoming projects.
"In future we may make some documentaries and movies," deputy director of the China Organ Administrative Centre Dr Gao Xinpu said.
"We made a movie based on a theme of organ donations called the Gift of Life but it's not in cinemas yet."
The centre Dr Gao helps run has only been operating since 2013.
Its job is to train people to educate others about organ donations, especially the families of patients who are gravely ill.
In a society like China, which places emphasis on a Confucian hierarchy and group consensus, individual consent is not enough.
The written consent of the patient's parents, spouse and adult children must also be obtained in order for the surgery to proceed when the patient passes away.
Counsellors only succeed in gaining the consent of families 20 per cent of the time.
Cultural barriers and black market concerns
Donor shortages are an international problem but the number of organ donors in China is extremely low for a country with a population of more than 1 billion.
Between March 2010 to April this year, only 3,824 people donated organs like their kidneys, lungs, liver or heart.
One reason for the low figures is because the national organ donation program was only implemented in 2014, after being trialled for several years.
Prior to that, the country was almost entirely dependent on executed prisoners as a source of transplant organs but this practice has gradually decreased, US-based rights group the Dui Hua foundation said.
But workers at the heart of the education campaign are also up against a significant cultural barrier in spreading awareness about organ donations because many in China believe a body should be buried whole.
A suggestion to include an organ donation preference in a person's drivers licence did not gain any traction at last year's meeting among China's political advisory body, the Chinese People's Consultative Conference.
Delegates felt that would be an unlucky gesture.
Apart from the cultural aversion, Chinese officials also face a sceptical public.
In 2012, 40 per cent of people surveyed were worried donated organs may be given to those with money or power – in other words, trafficked into a black market.
China's former vice health minister Huang Jiefu said public concern over the shady trade was one reason why the country banned the harvesting of organs from executed prisoners from the start of the year.
Dr Huang, who currently heads the organ donation and transplant committee, denies international pressure was a factor.
"A house divided against itself cannot stand," Dr Huang said, invoking a line used by former US president Abraham Lincoln in a speech about the problems of slavery.
"That means we cannot mix organ donations from civilians with executed prisoners, otherwise people don't trust this system, so we need time to change the mindset of the people."
Some doctors and scholars outside mainland China doubt the practice of prison organ harvesting has stopped and have written to the medical journal Lancet expressing their concern.
Dr Maria Fiatarone Singh said the lack of an accessible list detailing donors and recipients was one of the issues.
"Without that there really is no other way to know what's been said about who the donors are and what consent they gave is actually true," she said.
Dr Huang said the suspicions of his critics were reasonable.
"However, I trust fact is more important than eloquent speech," he said.
Organ transplant surgeries too expensive
Chinese officials are working to persuade medical insurers to subsidise organ transplant operations.
In China, a liver transplant procedure costs 300,000 renminbi (around $AU63,000) including hospitalisation; four times what an average person earns a year in a prosperous city like Beijing.
Doctors said the high cost and a lack of awareness about organ transplants were reasons why the waiting list only had 22,000 people even though an estimated 300,000 people may need the surgery.
"We still need time, it is still a new born baby," Dr Huang said.
"We still look ahead several years, because in future China will become the highest in organ donations."