Toddler's fate remains in limbo

Updated: 2011-10-19 07:37

By Li Wenfang (China Daily)

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GUANGZHOU - Yue Yue, the 2-year-old girl who was run over by two vehicles in Foshan, Guangdong province last week, remained close to brain dead as donations poured in for her and her rescuer.

"Her situation somewhat meets the standard of brain death," said Wang Weimin with the General Hospital of the Guangzhou Military Command of the People's Liberation Army.

"We can say she is close to brain dead, but her pain reflex is very sensitive, which is the only feature not matching brain death," Wang said on Tuesday.

Yue Yue still relies on machines for maintaining blood pressure and respiration. Tests on Monday found severe damage in the functions of her brainstem and cerebral cortex. There are a lot of possibilities in the development of her situation and she remains in critical condition, said Su Lei, director of the intensive care unit of the hospital.

Donations have poured in for Yue Yue and her rescuer, the 57-year-old woman Chen Xianmei, who moved the girl to the side of the road and shouted for her parents after the accident.

A company based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, gave 50,000 yuan ($7,850) cash to the girl's father, Wang Chichang, at the hospital on Tuesday. It pledged another 50,000 yuan and a cleaning job at the Foshan branch for Chen.

Another company in Dongguan, Guangdong province pledged 500,000 yuan to Yue Yue's family, Chen and the fund in Guangzhou for rewarding those who help others in danger.

Representatives from the Guangdong provincial women's federation visited the girl's family at the hospital and called for the public to help others in need.

The father said they would go to the bank to check how much they had received and decide what to do with the donations.

"We may open an independent account and put it under the supervision of the media," he said.

Chen at first refused to take the reward and then decided she would share it with Yue Yue.

"I didn't do it for money. I didn't earn the money. I will feel uneasy if I take it. My daughter asked me not to take any money for fear of unkind words from others," Chen was quoted saying by Southern Metropolitan News.

While Chen hoped for a normal life after the bombardments of media interviews, Yue Yue's family also had to deal with a lot they had not expected.

Responding to remarks that they had opened a micro blog account for publicity and donations, the father said the micro blog service operator opened the account for them and wrote the micro blogs after learning of Yue Yue's latest situation.

"I can't express my feelings. I'm only thinking of saving my child. I didn't expect so many unrelated things to happen. I would like to stress that we didn't call for donations."

Many of the 18 people who passed by the girl at the accident scene and did not help denied that they saw the girl or were aware of the situation.

One of them, a mother of a five-year-old girl, said she felt "regretful, compassionate, painful at heart and guilty," for seeing Yue Yue but not helping her.

"I thought she had fallen down from playing and didn't know she was run over by vehicles until her mother came in tears.

"She was bleeding from the mouth and nose and crying faintly. I was scared and my daughter was scared to cry. So we left in a hurry," said the woman surnamed Lin, cited by Guangzhou Daily.

"I wanted to lift her, but there was so much blood. I was scared. If someone was helping at that time, I would have done the same."

A lawyer association will be set up as part of the Guangdong Law Society, which will study the practice of refusing to help dying people and push for legislation, said Zhu Yongping, a well-known lawyer at Datong Law Firm in Guangzhou.

Tan Xuezhen contributed to this story.

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