LRS: Cuimei

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

​In May 2016, we received very bad news.  Cuimei's brother, Shixiang, unfortunately passed away due to heart failure while on the way to Xi'an to receive medical treatment. It was a great blow to the family.

For a long time his parents immersed themselves in the memories of their son. However, their spirits were lifted once again because they still had a beautiful daughter to take care of who also needed medical attention.

​They decided to have Cuimei's grandmother stay home to look after her, and her parents and grandfather would work to earn money for Cuimei's surgical costs.  After half a year they had made about 10,000 RMB.  Her parents decided to start Cuimei's heart treatment with this money.

Cuimei is four years old this year. She was wearing a beautiful skirt with a cute mushroom hair style when we saw her at the hospital. She was waiting in the hallway for admission into the hospital. Her father said, "My legs started trembling when I stepped into the hospital."

With the help of Little Red Scarf, Cuimei was admitted to the hospital. The tests results showed there was a ventricular septal defect of 4mm. This means an interventional surgery could be started and surgical risks are therefore reduced.  However, Cuimei's parents still worry constantly about her because their two other children passed away because of congenital heart disease.

Cuimei waited quietly for the nurses

After her preoperative examination, Cuimei's surgery was confirmed to start the next day. Her mother was very anxious but was trying to remain calm in front of Cuimei and encouraged Cuimei to relax. It was not clear what the next day's surgery would bring. Cuimei was playing with her father's cell phone happily.  In her young heart, surgery was just a word. But the results of the surgery would be the difference between life and death.
 
When Cuimei's surgery started the next morning, her parents suffered two hours of waiting outside of operating room. Those two hours seemed a long time for them.  After the operation, the doctor told them everything went well and Cuimei was transferred to the ICU. The rest of the recovery process was up to Cuimei herself. After 18 hours of staying in the ICU, she was then transferred to a regular ward. Because she had an interventional surgery, Cuimei looked bettter than the other children postoperatively.

Cuimei after surgery

We saw a very strong Cuimei in the hospital room. She would wait quietly for the nurses while other children would cry and make a fuss. 

During her recovery period in the hospital, her favorite thing to do was play games on her father's cellphone. This was the only toy she had. It was only when she played with the cell phone that we would see a smile on her face.
 
After a period of recovery at the hospital, Cuimei's health had much improved. In the following visits, we brought her nutritious food donated by people, hoping the food would help her to get better faster!
 
Looking at Cuimei's young parents holding her, althogh their faces still showed much burden, there was less sorrow. We're hoping that Cuimei, now with a new heart, will grow healthy and happy! We are also very thankful for the many people who were very caring for this family!

​Original article written by Li Wang, translated by Cindy and Shawn, and edited by Yanyan Zhang and Carolyn D.