CHENGDU: A baby who was badly burned by boiling water has been given some new skin - from a pig.
Fifteen-month-old Tang Xin, from Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, was operated on on Wednesday, International Children's Day.
Thanks to the animal, Tang has more than an 80 per cent chance of recovering, said Wei Ping, an expert in treating scalds, who performed the four-hour-long operation.
Tang was burned on 54 per cent of his body.
Wei said yesterday: "Tang has woken up and will hopefully be discharged in two months, safe and sound."
The hospital is providing free medical treatment to Tang because it was International Children's Day, Wei added.
Tang is from Pengxi County and lives in Shuangshui village in Chengdu with his mother, Liu Ying, and grandmother Chen Wengfang. Chen does odd jobs in the city while her husband, Tang Xiansheng, works as a mechanic repairing cars in Northwest China's Qinghai Province.
On May 12, the baby was playing while his mother was cleaning up. Suddenly, Liu heard a heartbreaking cry.
"I was shocked to find my son had fallen into a pot containing boiling water in a neighbour's house," Liu said.
Tang's clothes were taken off but soon afterwards a huge piece of skin fell to the ground.
After 19 days of treatment in the Chengdu Railway Hospital, the baby's condition improved. But his family, which had paid 14,000 yuan (US$1,690) in medical costs, could no longer foot the bill. "I now have only 1.4 yuan (less than 20 US cents) in my pocket," Liu said.
With the family unable to pay anymore, and Tang's wounds filling up with pus, the desperate mother turned to the media. Wei decided to help. With the approval of the Sichuan Firefighting General Team of the Armed Police, which oversees the hospital, he offered to give Tang free treatment.
On May 31, Tang was taken to Wei's hospital where the medical team decided to treat him with a skin graft from a pig.
The pig had to meet rigid criteria.
It had to be white, less than 6 months old and weigh no more than 30 kilograms. It also had to have been castrated, as castrated pigs tend to have delicate skin, and pass a medical check.
"After the hospital announced its criteria in the local media, nearly 100 pig farmers called, volunteering to donate their animals," Wei said.
Wei and his assistants finally got a pig from the New Hope Group in Xinjin, a suburban county of Chengdu. The group is China's largest pig-breeding base.
