Sick baby rushed to city under escort
By Ni Yinbin, Xu Chi and Cai Wenjun |
March 21, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A four-month-old boy seriously sickened with meningococcal meningitis was rushed from Ningbo to Shanghai under the escort of police in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai after the parents' friends called for help through a microblog yesterday.
The appeal on Weibo.com caught the attention of the public and police. Police in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai sent squad cars to lead the ambulance and parents' car and reported the procedure through Weibo.com, calling for cooperation of vehicles on the route.
Zhejiang's Ningbo City and Shanghai are about 220 kilometers apart.
The baby surnamed Hu arrived at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai a little after 8:30pm. Doctors said the quick transportation was important to save the boy's life, although his condition was still serious.
"The baby was confirmed with meningococcal meningitis and should undergo a series of tests and check tonight," said Luo Weifen, an official of the hospital, which is designated for pediatric infectious disease treatment in Shanghai.
Hu Xi, father of the baby, said he saw red spots on his son's body and they immediately took the baby to hospitals in Ningbo. The baby was diagnosed by doctors to be suffering acute meningitis due to bacterial infection on Monday.
"We took him to several hospitals in Ningbo but all the doctors said they were not able to cure such kind of infection due to limited skill and medical facility," said Hu. "So we decided to take the chance by rushing to Shanghai for advanced medical facilities."
Hu said doctors in the Shanghai hospital told him his baby had only a 50 percent chance of survival, but he said it was worth trying.
"I'm so grateful to the police and all the residents in Shanghai who gave way to the ambulance so we can win more time for the baby," Hu said.
Doctors said they will work out the treatment plan today.
The whole event started from a microblog post issued by a person claiming to be a colleague of the parents at 4pm yesterday. It said the baby was in a coma and had been diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis the previous day. The baby had hemorrhagic spots all over his body, and the hospital in Ningbo said the baby was critically ill.
"The parents had planned to send the baby to big hospitals in Shanghai or Hangzhou," the person wrote online. "One ambulance and one car driven by family members will transport the baby and we hope local police can give help since the vehicles will speed in order to save the baby's life."
The post received a quick response from police, who arranged the escort immediately. Police in Ningbo called their colleagues in Shanghai to help escort the ambulance, and traffic officers in Shanghai's Jinshan, Songjiang, Pudong and Minhang districts along the way were on standby, police said.
"It's not about escorting the ambulance with a police car. It's about coordinating every unit in the system," said an officer surnamed Hou. "It was actually not easy to drive so fast on the highway at night, as there were many trucks. The traffic off the highway was even more difficult to deal with."
Shanghai police said Hu's ambulance arrived in Shanghai at the Fengjing Toll Station in Songjiang at 8:03pm and arrived at the hospital at 8:38pm.
Shanghai police said they arranged a succession of police cars to clear the way in every district from Jinshan to Minhang. As the ambulance reached the next district, the police car took over, as in a relay race.
The appeal on Weibo.com caught the attention of the public and police. Police in Zhejiang Province and Shanghai sent squad cars to lead the ambulance and parents' car and reported the procedure through Weibo.com, calling for cooperation of vehicles on the route.
Zhejiang's Ningbo City and Shanghai are about 220 kilometers apart.
The baby surnamed Hu arrived at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai a little after 8:30pm. Doctors said the quick transportation was important to save the boy's life, although his condition was still serious.
"The baby was confirmed with meningococcal meningitis and should undergo a series of tests and check tonight," said Luo Weifen, an official of the hospital, which is designated for pediatric infectious disease treatment in Shanghai.
Hu Xi, father of the baby, said he saw red spots on his son's body and they immediately took the baby to hospitals in Ningbo. The baby was diagnosed by doctors to be suffering acute meningitis due to bacterial infection on Monday.
"We took him to several hospitals in Ningbo but all the doctors said they were not able to cure such kind of infection due to limited skill and medical facility," said Hu. "So we decided to take the chance by rushing to Shanghai for advanced medical facilities."
Hu said doctors in the Shanghai hospital told him his baby had only a 50 percent chance of survival, but he said it was worth trying.
"I'm so grateful to the police and all the residents in Shanghai who gave way to the ambulance so we can win more time for the baby," Hu said.
Doctors said they will work out the treatment plan today.
The whole event started from a microblog post issued by a person claiming to be a colleague of the parents at 4pm yesterday. It said the baby was in a coma and had been diagnosed with meningococcal meningitis the previous day. The baby had hemorrhagic spots all over his body, and the hospital in Ningbo said the baby was critically ill.
"The parents had planned to send the baby to big hospitals in Shanghai or Hangzhou," the person wrote online. "One ambulance and one car driven by family members will transport the baby and we hope local police can give help since the vehicles will speed in order to save the baby's life."
The post received a quick response from police, who arranged the escort immediately. Police in Ningbo called their colleagues in Shanghai to help escort the ambulance, and traffic officers in Shanghai's Jinshan, Songjiang, Pudong and Minhang districts along the way were on standby, police said.
"It's not about escorting the ambulance with a police car. It's about coordinating every unit in the system," said an officer surnamed Hou. "It was actually not easy to drive so fast on the highway at night, as there were many trucks. The traffic off the highway was even more difficult to deal with."
Shanghai police said Hu's ambulance arrived in Shanghai at the Fengjing Toll Station in Songjiang at 8:03pm and arrived at the hospital at 8:38pm.
Shanghai police said they arranged a succession of police cars to clear the way in every district from Jinshan to Minhang. As the ambulance reached the next district, the police car took over, as in a relay race.
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