Girl flies to US for lung transplant
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A five-year-old Beijing girl, who suffers from a serious lung disease and requires an oxygen machine to breathe, flew to the United States on Wednesday hoping to secure a lung transplant, her family said.
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Pan Yifan and her family at Beijing airport on Wednesday before leaving for the US. |
Pan Yifan, who lives in Haidian district, suffered breathing problems at birth and required intensive care. Despite attending several hospitals in Beijing, doctors were unable make a definite diagnosis, and Pan needed to breathe through an oxygen machine.
According to her parents, Pan dreamed of ice-skating but was too weak to walk by herself and would have difficulty breathing if standing for more than five minutes.
"The lung transplant is our last hope to save our daughter, and it is only possible thanks to the volunteers and all the people who donated money," said Pan Junting, Yifan's father, at Beijing Capital International Airport on Wednesday.
The father told METRO that with the help of netizens and volunteers, the family had raised 3.4-million yuan in three months.
The father was a moderator of a popular online forum and enjoyed a good reputation as a veteran IT engineer. More than 20 volunteers came to see his daughter off at the airport.
"Yifan will spend the first two weeks at the Children's Hospital Boston to get a consultation and then wait for a lung donor," said the father, whose was denied a visa to accompany his daughter on the grounds of "immigrant intent suspicion".
"My wife was granted a visa and will take care of Yifan in Boston. They are expected to stay in the United States for at least 10 months," he said.
Children's Hospital Boston is the primary pediatric teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School and is regarded as one of the best pediatric medical centers in the United States.
The father said the waiting period for a lung transplant is normally two months and that Yifan would need six months of observation after the operation to make sure her body didn't reject the new organ.
Yifang was diagnosed as suffering from pulmonary hypertension at Beijing-based United Family Hospitals and Clinics in November 2009 and her attending doctor suggested she seek medical treatment in the US.
Pan Junting said the 3.4-million-yuan donation was just for medical treatment and he would need to earn more money to pay for his wife and daughter's living expenses in Boston.
"Though we have faced much frustration and pressure, I hope I will hear good news soon," he said.
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