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Burns victim gets lifeline from Europe

By Zhou Lihua, Chen Kun AND Xie Yu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-21 09:31

For the past 10 weeks, family and friends of Wang Dan shared her pain as the 6-year-old girl hung on to life after suffering 70 percent burns on her body when she fell into a hearth at home.

Hope for the girl in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, finally flew in from Europe on Friday - all 3,000 sq cm of it.

Doctor Xie Weiguo (R) used the donated skin to cover the injured area on the girl Wan Dan in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province Friday, March 20, 2009. [cnhan.com]

Doctors at the Wuhan No 3 Hospital used the donated skin, the size of about five pieces of A4-sized writing paper, to cover most of the injured area on the girl, known as Dandan by loved ones.

"We have enough skin now, although she still faces many challenges in the recovery phase. Chances of her survival are now more than 90 percent," Xie Weiguo, the doctor who heads the medical team involved in Dandan's treatment, told China Daily after the three-hour operation on Friday.

Xie said the successful surgery also marked one of the first cases a Chinese patient has accepted a skin donation from abroad. "This kind of operation is not complicated, but the key problem is that we do not have enough skin for such transplants," Xie said.

"We are also suggesting to related departments to make clear regulations for skin donation in China, so that more people can get help," Xie said.

In Dandan's case, doctors at a county-level clinic near the girl's home in Enshi city, Hubei, first tried to use transplanted skin from a pig to treat her. But the injury was too serious and she was sent to Wuhan for treatment.

There, doctors used skin from Dandan's own head. Her father, Wang Chengzhi, also donated his own skin to save his daughter. But all this only managed to cover one-fifth of the injured area and Dandan's life was still in danger. Her left leg was also amputated because of infection from the burns.

The hospital turned to the Euro Skin Bank, a Dutch non-profit organization, asking for 1,500 sq cm of skin. The group sent double that amount.

"I did not expect we could get the skin from Europe my Dandan is so lucky," the 43-year-old Wang told China Daily after his daughter's operation.

But other than his daughter's full recovery, he is still concerned about her medical fees.

"We have already spent more than 100,000 yuan ($14,600) for the child. Now we owe the hospital more than 10,000 yuan and the complete treatment may cost more than 300,000 yuan," Wang said.