LRS Care: Boyu

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. We provide financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, we provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle

​Gender: Male
Age: 12
Location: Gansu, China
Household: 6 members grandparents, parents, older sister, Boyu
Annual Income: $3,846 USD 
Daily Income: $10.53 USD 
Donated: $755 to subsidize medical expenses, including protein injections 
Year Sponsored: 2016

Boyu was sponsored by donors from the TFish 5K Walkathon.

Update October 31, 2016

​During a follow-up post-surgery visit this year, we found out that Boyu was in need of additional surgeries, so we decided to include him in our LRS Care program.

For a period of time we had lost touch with Boyu's family due to his parent’s cell phone inactivation. We finally reconnected with his family through Dr. Tang and were able to talk with them on the phone.

We learned that Boyu has completed two brain surgeries and is still recovering. However, his family can no longer afford the medicine that provides a critical protein to him. The $755 raised from the walkathon will help his family's financial situation.

Background Information

​Boyu had a complicated case of congenital heart disease. Before he was 8, he had already had two major operations. His 2nd surgery was in June 2012 at the First Hospital in Lanzhou. His family applied for financial aid from both Little Red Scarf and another US charity called Heart with Heart. Because Heart with Heart was able to provide a larger donation, and one family cannot accept assistance from two different charities, Boyu's family decided to go with Heart to Heart instead of LRS.

Although he wasn’t completely cured, the surgeries did help improve his condition. He could walk and his cheeks and lips became pink. The most exciting thing was that he could go to school.

This year he’s in 3rd grade. He cherishes the opportunity and excels at school. His family’s life could go back to normal. His parents work in a brick factory near their home. They tried their best to earn money and paid off their debts last year.

However, 2 years later, Boyu started having health issues again. At the end of 2014, Boyu’s body was swollen and his mother took him to the Lanzhou hospital. The doctor said he lacked protein, so his body could not absorb water. They needed to supply protein for him, and the best way was to inject liquid protein. Protein could not be covered by medical insurance. He needed to be injected twice a year and one injection cost $300 USD. To his mother’s surprise, his swelling disappeared immediately once he was injected with protein. 

However, that was not the end of Boyu's health problems. He was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2015. His parents  took him to several hospitals in Lanzhou and Xi’an. The results were similar: the epilepsy was caused by nerve compression.

​The best treatment  was to do an operation to eliminate the compression. The family had to borrow money for his operation in 2016, which cost about $3,000 USD. Now he is much better, but the family is in financial difficulties again, especially because of the grandparents' medical bills from high blood pressure and mental disease. The family farms and does temp work, but their income is limited. We thank our donors for helping them by relieving their financial difficulties!