Hot on the Web

Microbloggers campaigning to save leukemia girl

By Han Bingbin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-19 07:08

Doudou sleeps in her mother's arm. [Zhang Mo/China Daily]

Sina.com microbloggers have concluded their search for a rare immunity booster to try to rescue the life of Duoduo, a 21-month-old girl suffering from leukemia.

The girl's mother, Wang Haiying, told METRO through text message the medicine has now been found, but painful chemotherapy began on Tuesday.

"Duoduo is crying for me all the time," she said.

A microblog user named "Little PP" put out an emergency call on Sina.com on May 16 on behalf of the mother, calling for sales information about a medicine containing immunoglobulin to strengthen Duoduo's immunity ahead of chemotherapy.

The message managed to prompt more than 20,000 bloggers to forward the information, according to Sina.com.

The mother also announced the emergency situation on her microblog later that day, which was then forwarded by as many as 3,000 others.

According to Wang's updates, one hospital and two companies immediately offered to provide the medicine.

Some netizens have given useful medical information and others are offering emotional support to the distressed parent.

The Armed Police General Hospital, where Duoduo is currently a patient, has offered the girl three vials of the medicine. The hospital is also trying its best to locate an additional supply of the rare medicine, according to Liu Qiuling, director of the pediatrics department at the hospital.

Liu said she is not very optimistic about the girl's prospects, since Duoduo has a serious lung infection in addition to leukemia.

In response to Duoduo's situation, the hospital has upgraded the quality of her room. However, it has also limited the number of daily visits to prevent infection.

Liu said if chemotherapy managed to improve Duoduo's condition, the hospital would immediately begin bone marrow transplants.

"Microblogs have changed the public's concept of helping people. It used to be hard to do this, but now in only a click can a message be spread to millions," said Cao Zenghui, operations director of Sina.com's microblog.

China now has more than 15 microblog websites, according to Cao.

Charles Cao, CEO of Sina.com, said the company's microblog users have doubled in number in the past quarter alone.