Linda Wells, distressed American mother of critically ill adopted
Chinese girl Kailee, leaves Beijing for Shanghai today to continue
her urgent mission, after a DNA test yesterday ruled out the
discovery of Kailee's "biological father."
Wells, whose six-year-old will die unless she receives a bone
marrow transplant -- hopefully from a member of her biological
family -- said she was disappointed to hear that the man she found
in Central China's Hunan Province turned out not to be Kailee's
father, nor did his bone marrow match.
Kailee, whom Wells adopted from Hunan's Changde after being
abandoned as a baby in 1997, is suffering from aplastic anaemia.
Doctors said a bone-marrow transplant -- ideally from a sibling or
parent -- is her only hope of survival.
"I'm sad, but I think there is still a lot of hope that by
increasing the bone marrow registry, we will find a match," said
Wells, who kicked off her China trip in mid-February.
Wells went to Kailee's birthplace last week. With help from the
local Red Cross Society and media, she was able to find a man, who
many believed was Kailee's biological father.
She brought the man's blood sample to Beijing to be tested by the
Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) on Monday, only to be
disappointed.
Hong Junling, an official of RCSC, said his agency has been working
to enlarge the number of donors on the bone marrow registry. Hong
also said the bigger the bone marrow registry, the higher the odds
that Kailee will be able to find a match.
(China Daily February 26, 2003)