By Peter Foster, Beijing
2:00PM BST 18 Oct 2011
Video footage of the incident involving 2-year-old Wang Yue – known by her pet family name Yueyue – caused outrage in China and around the world on Tuesday, prompting questions about whether China's economic miracle had left a moral vacuum in its wake.
The girl, who was eventually scooped up and rescued by the nineteenth passer-by remains in a critical condition in the intensive care unit of Guangzhou military hospital in China's industrial heartland of Guangdong.
The hospital's head of neurosurgery, quoted by the local Guangzhou Daily newspaper, said that Yueyue had suffered massive head injuries and was in a coma, only able to breathe with the aid of a ventilator.
Wang Weiming, head of the neurosurgery department at the general hospital of Guangzhou military region, said Yueyue had shown no improvement and was very unlikely to recover her mental faculties.
"The patient largely fits the criteria of brain death," he added, "but her limbs are relatively sensible to a pain reflex, so she cannot be determined as brain-dead.
The girl's parents, who owned a small stall in the wholesale market in nearby Foshan, where the incident happened, were maintaining a rotating vigil at their daughter's bedside, hoping against hope that she might recover.
The girl's mother, named as Mrs Qu, said she had moved to Foshan in 2003 to start up the shop and had rented an apartment nearby.
The middle class couple said they had been inundated with calls of support and offers of donations for their daughter's medical care, but had declined the offers, saying they were "much appreciated" but not needed.
The distraught parents have avoided voicing their feelings over the incident, saying they wanted only to focus on Yueyue's recovery, but her grandfather, named as Mr Wang, admitted to a local newspaper that he "hated those cold-blooded passers-by".
He added that he had recognised at least one of the passersby. "I wanted to beat him, but at last I held myself back," he was quoted as saying in the Southern Metropolis Daily.
The story of Yueyue has both touched and angered millions of people in China and around the world.
In China, the TV report of the incident was viewed more than 2 million times on the internet within 24 hours and on Sina Weibo – China's version of Twitter – it attracted 4.4 million comments in the same period, organised under the hashtag "Please end the cold-heartedness."
By last night the story appeared to have sparked a national campaign on Sina Weibo under the banner "Please Stop Apathy" which was the number one trending topic, with thousands of posts calling for a return to moral consciousness in China.
"Little Yueyue's tragedy should not be repeated, the morality should not disappear, our hearts must still have a conscience. From today, offer to help those who need your help, because caring for others is just help yourself," said the call for change.
The public discussion reached even the pages of People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party that usually remains aloof from such mass debates when they erupt on China's vibrant internet discussion boards.
"Although saving people constantly brings 'trouble,' nonetheless, ignoring the dying or even helping with evil acts by negligence is ripping apart society's ethical baseline and dissolving any sense of conscience deep in the souls of the public," wrote a senior columnist, Li Hongbing.
The one person who attracted universal praise for her warmheartedness was Yueyue's rescuer, 58-year-old Chen Xianmei who was said to work as a domestic helper by day and supplement her income by collecting rubbish for recycling at night.
Yueyue's parents were photographed meeting the woman, bowing down in a ritual 'kowtow' – a public expression of gratitude that she had stopped to help their daughter when so many others had walked on by.
The woman said she had thought about the risk of malicious prosecution when she intervened to help Yueyue – the reason widely given in China why 18 others did not stop to help – adding that she responded instinctively.
She told reporters she had found Yueyue with one eye shut and the other eye open looking at her and had rushed around searching for her mother. "I didn't think I was getting into any trouble. I didn't think so much. I just wanted to help her," she said, before returning to work.
SHAME ON YOU CHINA:
How can you lead the world when you can’t even stop to pick up a little girl as she lays dieing on the road !
"The patient largely fits the criteria of brain death," he added, "but her limbs are relatively sensible to a pain reflex, so she cannot be determined as brain-dead.
The girl's parents, who owned a small stall in the wholesale market in nearby Foshan, where the incident happened, were maintaining a rotating vigil at their daughter's bedside, hoping against hope that she might recover.
The girl's mother, named as Mrs Qu, said she had moved to Foshan in 2003 to start up the shop and had rented an apartment nearby.
The middle class couple said they had been inundated with calls of support and offers of donations for their daughter's medical care, but had declined the offers, saying they were "much appreciated" but not needed.
The distraught parents have avoided voicing their feelings over the incident, saying they wanted only to focus on Yueyue's recovery, but her grandfather, named as Mr Wang, admitted to a local newspaper that he "hated those cold-blooded passers-by".
He added that he had recognised at least one of the passersby. "I wanted to beat him, but at last I held myself back," he was quoted as saying in the Southern Metropolis Daily.
The story of Yueyue has both touched and angered millions of people in China and around the world.
In China, the TV report of the incident was viewed more than 2 million times on the internet within 24 hours and on Sina Weibo – China's version of Twitter – it attracted 4.4 million comments in the same period, organised under the hashtag "Please end the cold-heartedness."
By last night the story appeared to have sparked a national campaign on Sina Weibo under the banner "Please Stop Apathy" which was the number one trending topic, with thousands of posts calling for a return to moral consciousness in China.
"Little Yueyue's tragedy should not be repeated, the morality should not disappear, our hearts must still have a conscience. From today, offer to help those who need your help, because caring for others is just help yourself," said the call for change.
The public discussion reached even the pages of People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party that usually remains aloof from such mass debates when they erupt on China's vibrant internet discussion boards.
"Although saving people constantly brings 'trouble,' nonetheless, ignoring the dying or even helping with evil acts by negligence is ripping apart society's ethical baseline and dissolving any sense of conscience deep in the souls of the public," wrote a senior columnist, Li Hongbing.
The one person who attracted universal praise for her warmheartedness was Yueyue's rescuer, 58-year-old Chen Xianmei who was said to work as a domestic helper by day and supplement her income by collecting rubbish for recycling at night.
Yueyue's parents were photographed meeting the woman, bowing down in a ritual 'kowtow' – a public expression of gratitude that she had stopped to help their daughter when so many others had walked on by.
The woman said she had thought about the risk of malicious prosecution when she intervened to help Yueyue – the reason widely given in China why 18 others did not stop to help – adding that she responded instinctively.
She told reporters she had found Yueyue with one eye shut and the other eye open looking at her and had rushed around searching for her mother. "I didn't think I was getting into any trouble. I didn't think so much. I just wanted to help her," she said, before returning to work.
SHAME ON YOU CHINA:
How can you lead the world when you can’t even stop to pick up a little girl as she lays dieing on the road !
1 comment:
How could the mom leave the child unattended, even in a family laundramat, she's a toddler, parent need to give full supervision and attention, and how possibly can she not notice until so long after?
The first truck! How could you!! I've read and see that you're the Traffic Police??? Shame on you! You are not worth being a police! It is seen that you know you ran something over yet didn't even bother to get off and check who's there, and have to continue to keep going!
People in the street! Shame, shame shame!!! It's a little girl!! Come on, you're afraid of being accuse?? She got ran over, then those of you who are walking, you can rescue her, it's not like someone's going to accuse you of running over a girl with NO car!! Seems like you guys do not have a heart!
Should be ashame of all of u!!!
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