Saving children betters the future

Documentary series highlights the resilience of kids facing traumatic diseases and injuries, and the doctors who fight for their physical and mental recovery, Wang Ru reports.

No one could have predicted that a flu could lead to such a disaster. At the end of last year, after suffering the flu and a two-day fever, 10-year-old Niannian caught fulminant myocarditis, a severe disease that can worsen the condition and lead to death.

Luckily, with the help of extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation, better known as ECMO, Niannian was saved. However, the complication resulted in severe necrosis of his right lower leg. To save his life, doctors had to cut into his right leg to remove the necrotic tissue.

During this critical juncture, the most direct and effective surgical option was to amputate the leg from his hip joint, which would make it impossible to fit him with a prosthetic limb in the future, hindering him from walking again.