LRS Care Profile #24: Yu Mei

Gender: Female
Age: 3
Household: 8 members—three older sisters, two younger sisters, mother, father, and Yu Mei
Annual Income: $4800 USD
Daily Income: $13 USD
Needs: Surgery and medical subsidies
Fundraising Goal: $1600 USD

Key Points

Help Yu Mei get the surgery she needs to treat her critical condition.

• Her symptoms have worsened since birth
  
• The family has already taken out loans to pay for Yu Mei’s medical expenses and her siblings’ college education
• The family’s income from farming and raising pigs is insufficient 
• Her dedicated father’s biggest desire is for Yu Mei to have a successful surgery  
  

Background

Symptoms from Birth

Yu Mei was born in a remote village. From birth, it was obvious she was not healthy from the colored tints of her body features—blue face, purple lips, red eyes, and green fingers and toes. As she got older, her disease became more severe.

Active Despite Disease

However, she was still a very active child and loved walking around. These activities would exacerbate her symptoms, such as shortness of breath. Her family needed to hold her all the time to alleviate the symptoms.

College Loans

Yu Mei’s three older sisters are all in college with student loans. In order to support the children and their transportation costs, the family went into almost $15,000 of debt.

Difficult Farm Life

The family has over an acre of land they use to grow potatoes, corn, and wheat. However, the harvest was not large enough so they also had to rely on raising pigs. In the best of times they could earn about $4800. But last year the price of pigs went down and the family only earned enough to cover the costs.

Medical Care Debt

When Yu Mei went to see the doctor most recently, her father had to go to the bank to borrow over $6400. Now the family has about $21,000 of debt. But even that was not enough to cover the hospital expenses since Yu Mei’s condition is so severe. She may need two surgeries. Her surgery had to be postponed though because not long after Yu Mei was hospitalized she got chicken pox.

“Big Tree” Father

With Yu Mei’s sickness, her father needed to take care of her and the other children, so he couldn’t work. Even though Yu Mei has other siblings, her father has never left her side. He loves her very much. Whenever Yu Mei feels unwell, she clings to her father’s neck as if he’s a large tree that doesn’t move. This, her father has the nickname "Big Tree" Father. His biggest wish is to let Yu Mei have a successful surgery.  

Will you join us in helping Yu Mei get the surgery she desperately needs?

i'm ready to donate!