WENZHOU, Zhejiang -The last survivor pulled from Saturday’s deadly train accident – a 2-year-old girl – showed good vital signs the morning after her first surgery.
But she will have to live in a changed world without her parents.
Xiang Weiyi was rescued in the last carriage of a stalled bullet train 21 hours after it was rear-ended near Wenzhou, Zhejiang province. Her parents have been confirmed dead.
She is not out of danger and is under observation in the intensive care unit at the No 2 Hospital attached to the Wenzhou Medical College, ICU Director Pan Guoquan said on Monday.
She suffered bruises to her lungs, liver and soft tissues, and two toes of her left foot had insufficient blood supply from being compressed in the damaged carriage for a long time, the doctor said.
“She needs to be kept under close observation during the recovery progress, especially the blood circulation in her left leg. In five to eight days we will decide whether she needs an amputation,” he said.
The girl and her parents boarded the train to visit her grandparents in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province, on July 15 and were on their way home a week later.
“She has experienced many setbacks in her three years. She was critically ill because she was a premature baby. And now she has lost her parents. But she is lucky to survive,” her father’s cousin told China Daily on Monday, declining to tell his name.
The girls’ father, Xiang Yu’an, 31, was a Chinese teacher in Ren Yansong Senior High School of Wenzhou, and had established a website on Chinese language and culture.
“He devoted himself to his career, leaving limited time to his family. He always took several days to visit his parents, like this time,” his cousin said.
Shi Lihong, 30, the girl’s mother, was director of the Students’ Affairs Department in Wenzhou Vocational College of Science and Technology.
“They were warm-hearted, ready to help their relatives, their students and others in need,” his cousin said, adding many of their students had come to the hospital to see their daughter since the accident.
Thousands of netizens forwarded the parents’ posts and prayed for the girl’s health on the Internet.
“Please be strong, even without your parents, and make your parents in heaven proud of you,” one posting said.
On their micro blog accounts on Sina Weibo, her father uploaded a picture of the girl taking a drink of water in her seat on the train, with the caption saying “my girl’s first trip on the bullet train”.
Her mother also posted stories and pictures about her. A posting on June 18 said: “Yiyi won several times when she played mobile phone games on the bed, and kept praising herself as ‘excellent’. Just a kid. (Smile)”
Her mother’s last micro blog read: “My girl is little but has a big temper. Sweetie, when will you grow up?” The words were posted just an hour before the deadly crash.
One of the father’s friends with the network name of “xiyikafei” posted on her micro blog on Monday saying, “Yiyi’s grandmother told me that the rescuers found her mother still in the position of a hug. I saw the greatness of love.”
Source: China Daily