Rescue of premature baby pulls on people's heartstrings

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The time-consuming rescue of an 800-gram premature baby who suffered from a serious lung infection pulled the heartstrings of millions of Chinese netizens.

On Thursday, hundreds of traffic policemen, medical staff, volunteers and caring strangers pitched in to help the fragile baby travel 700 kilometers on an ambulance from central China's Henan Province to Beijing within nine hours in a battle to save her life.

Three-month-old premature baby Tian Qingyao on board an ambulance to Beijing. /VCG Photo

The three-month-old baby girl, Tian Qingyao, was born four months premature in September at a hospital in Nanyang City in Henan Province. When she arrived into the world, Tian was so minuscule that she was described as a "palm-sized baby," and was immediately sent to the ICU ward, the Beijing News reported.

Tian spent her first 71 days under intensive care, as the premature birth had given her multiple serious medical conditions.

She was so fragile and never left the incubator. Her mother waited a full month until she was allowed to see her newborn daughter for the first time.

Tian's condition continued to worsen, however, even after she was transferred to a university hospital in the provincial capital. In late November, the baby was diagnosed with a rare lung infection and had to travel to Beijing for further treatment.

The "palm-sized baby" in an incubator /VCG Photo

It was not an easy trip, given Tian's perilous conditions, air travel was soon ruled out of the question. A trip on the high-speed train was not viable either, as the baby lived on oxygen tanks that were forbidden on trains. She could only travel 700 kilometers in an ambulance.

On Thursday, the rescue started as the ambulance departed for Beijing at 3 p.m. To cut the travel time and ensure a safe trip, local traffic police sent a message via radio and social media, asking people to make way for Tian's ambulance.

On China's major social media platform Weibo, thousands of warm-hearted strangers pitched in to help spread the message.

In cities where Tian's ambulance was scheduled to pass, local traffic authorities sent out reminders to the public and even deployed staff to escort the ambulance and prepared gas for the vehicle.

Traffic police escorted Tian's ambulance. /VCG Photo

A little before midnight, Tian's ambulance safely arrived in Beijing and the baby was admitted to the hospital.

The painstaking rescue made waves on Chinese social media. A hashtag created for Tian was viewed over 80 million times by Saturday; a crowdfunding helped raise over 450,000 yuan (65,000 U.S. dollars) by Thursday night to support the family in treating the baby girl.

Given Tian's complicated conditions, her medical bill since her birth is estimated to be over a million yuan. The family, already in debt, chose not to give up nonetheless.

"As long as you stay strong, we will never give up on you, no matter how much it costs," the mother wrote on her social media account.