Heartbeat help for needy child

By Cai Wenjun  |   2008-11-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A YOUNG girl from Sichuan Province arrived in Shanghai yesterday for charity surgery designed to treat her congenital heart disease and put her on track from a new start in life.

The four-year-old is the adopted daughter of a farm family in Pengzhou, 60 kilometers from Wenchuan, epicenter of the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province.

The girl was hospitalized at Shanghai Yodak Cardio-Thoracic Hospital yesterday evening for tests. The surgery plan and date are still being decided, officials said.

Qing Qiyun, a farmer at Lingshi Village, found a newborn girl on November 27, 2003, and decided to adopt the child. The infant, named Qing Liyue was found to be suffering from heart malformations at the age of 8 months.

The adoptive father said the family has a small income but had started to save as much as it could for the girl's treatment. The plan was interrupted by the earthquake, when their home was destroyed.

The child's care took a turn for the better when she came to the attention of a nurse working for the medical rescue team sent by Hunan Province to Pengzhou.

The nurse wrote a story about Qing and put it online, drawing interest from the China Children and Teenagers Fund, which started to look for medical experts and hospitals for Qing.