Dozens of people work together to save boy's badly damaged arm

The airliner CZ6820 was being guided down the runway on April 30 at the Hotan airport in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to prepare for its departure.

It was then stopped by the request of a father who rushed to send his seven-year-old son with a badly damaged arm to a hospital in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.

The boy required surgery within eight hours to save his arm, and in a race against time, crew members and passengers, police, medical workers and many other people joined in to help.

"Without their support, my nephew would have lost his right arm," said Abudulmajit Emin, uncle of the seven-year-old.

On that afternoon, Abudulmajit was spraying walnut trees with pesticide at Hotan prefecture's Kumairik village he heard the child screaming.

"His right arm had been smashed by the gear of a running tractor. Blood was pouring out of the wounds," he said.

They rushed to call an ambulance to send him to Hotan Prefecture People's Hospital.

After the orthopedists in the hospital examined the arm, they suggested that as the injury was so severe that the arm would need to be severed and then reattached to properly align the bone fragments, otherwise the child would be disabled for life.

They decided to transfer him to the affiliated TCM hospital of Xinjiang Medical University in Urumqi, which is more than 1,400 kilometers from Hotan prefecture. After the boy's wounds were bound up and the severed limb was preserved at a low temperature, he was sent to the Hotan airport to catch a flight to Urumqi.

Escorted by police cars, the ambulance was racing with sirens wailing.

As they arrived at the airport at around 11:40 pm, they were informed that the last flight to Urumqi that day was about to take off.

"We asked the airport staff to hold back the plane and save the child. The airport officials promised that they would try their best to help us," recalled Abudulmajit.

Soon, the plane stopped, returned to the parking bay and opened its cabin door. The child was lifted on a stretcher onto the plane.

Zhao Yan, the flight's chief steward, said that as the doctors told her that the boy shouldn't fall asleep throughout the journey, she helped the boy to keep a clear mind by playing music. She also used ice cubes to cool down the severed limb.

"During the flight, some passengers also helped to take care of the boy," she recalled.

It was at 2:10 am on May 1 when the seven-year-old finally arrived at the affiliated TCM hospital of Xinjiang Medical University in Urumqi.

The hospital prioritized his case and organized more than 20 doctors and nurses from departments including blood transfusion, orthopedics, emergency and anesthesiology, according to Li Li, an orthopedist at the hospital.

The surgery lasted for more than three hours and was successful.

"I can feel that the government and our people have attached great importance to protect our children," Li said.

Li added that the patient's vital signs such as pulse, temperature and blood pressure are within normal limits. The hospital has set up an expert team to ensure that the boy can recover well from the injury.