Heartwarming help for kids on high plateau

Qinghai province, sitting at an average altitude of 3,000 meters, sees a higher rate of childhood congenital heart disease than China's national average, largely driven by high-altitude hypoxia.

For two decades, medical teams from TEDA International Cardiovascular Hospital in Tianjin have traveled repeatedly from low-elevation plains onto the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Through on-site auscultation, ultrasound checks and clinical assessment, doctors bring diagnosis and treatment to remote mountain communities, helping tens of thousands of young people receive timely care.

This is not merely a charitable medical effort, but sustained acts of care for the lives and health of children on the plateau under East-West cooperation.

One early morning in August, a long line formed at the Civil Affairs Bureau in Datong county in Qinghai. Local villagers and herders brought their children to attend the free CHD screening. In a large temporary conference room, three doctors sat in separate zones. Children, after being registered, were checked one by one.

A young girl, accompanied by her mother, walked up to a doctor. The doctor placed a stethoscope gently on the child's chest to preliminarily check for abnormal heart signs. Then an ultrasound doctor examined the child's heart structure.

After the examination, a cardiologist assessed the child's heart blood flow and gave either a clean bill of health or recommendations for follow-up and further treatment.

Some families leave with reassuring news that their children's hearts are healthy. Others receive formal diagnoses of congenital heart malformation, opening up access to life-changing surgical treatment that would otherwise be out of reach.

Dengga, now 16, is one of the program's most representative beneficiaries. Twelve years ago, the boy from Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture was diagnosed with CHD. Treatment was put off for years due to his family's financial hardship and limited local medical resources.

When TICH's screening team arrived in Yushu, Dengga took the chance to join the screening. He was later invited to travel to Tianjin and receive corrective heart surgery. Fully recovered, he is now a high school student in the provincial capital Xining and a key player in his school soccer team. "Apart from a small scar on my body, I hardly remember I once had congenital heart disease. After surgery I can do everything other young people do," he said.

Liu Xiaocheng, president of TICH, leads these gruelling plateau missions. Also a core developer of China's homegrown "Rocket Heart" artificial heart device, the 77 year-old physician still takes part in on-site field screening trips.

Last month, his medical team spent nearly three weeks across 14 counties in Guoluo and Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefectures, carrying out work at altitudes reaching 5,000 meters. During this campaign, they screened 480 local children and identified more than 30 young patients with clear surgical indications. Many parents travel dozens of kilometers over rough mountain roads, eager to get their children examined by experts from Tianjin.

"The village notified us that experts from Tianjin were coming to check children's hearts, so we traveled dozens of miles of mountain roads to get here. Having experts come all the way to the plateau to treat our children is truly a precious opportunity for ordinary families like us," said Zhao Zhiyuan, a parent from Datong county, echoing the sentiments of many. After years of screening and public education, more and more parents like Zhao are proactively bringing their children for checkups.

Medical observations confirm altitude directly influences CHD risk: every 1,000-meter rise in elevation increases CHD incidence by one per thousand, Liu said.

National cardiovascular reports list CHD as the leading birth defect encountered across many parts of China, with a national detection rate of 8.98 per thousand. Qinghai's unique high-altitude topography, historical gaps in grassroots prenatal care and constrained local medical capacity together contribute to its heavier CHD disease burden.

Data from the National Health Commission show that last year, the health literacy level of Chinese residents reached 33.69 percent, up 1.82 percentage points from 2024. Among them, rural residents exceeded 30 percent, and residents in western China exceeded 29 percent, narrowing the gap between western and eastern/central regions.

To build sustainable local capacity, Qinghai authorities have released the Qinghai Province Action Plan for CHD Screening and Treatment (2026-28), aiming to establish a complete four-tier local prevention and treatment system by 2028: grassroots-level primary screening, county-level reexamination, prefecture-level diagnosis and provincial-level treatment.

Over the past 20 years, TICH medical teams have completed 29 separate field missions to Qinghai. They have screened around 14,600 children locally and arranged free corrective heart surgery for 2,592 young patients.

Though Qinghai accounts for merely 0.42 percent of China's total population, it represents 16 percent of all children assisted by the hospital's national CHD relief program. Nationwide, the hospital's support has covered 28 provincial-level regions, delivering care to 17,000 orphaned and impoverished children from 35 ethnic groups.

The institution has been awarded the title of "National Advanced Collective in Poverty Alleviation" by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council — the nation's Cabinet — in recognition of its work.

Screening marks only the starting point of a complete care pipeline. After positive identification, children go through material review jointly conducted by Qinghai provincial civil affairs authorities and the Qinghai Charity Federation, before being organized in groups to travel to Tianjin for surgery.

TICH has built standardized end-to-end workflows covering surgical indication assessments, admissions, operation, rehabilitation, discharge and long-term follow-up care. Charitable organizations and enterprises cover surgical costs, while local governments provide transportation subsidies to ease financial pressure on patients' families.

Zhong Aiyamei contributed to this story.