El Riad El Riad Shrine Divan - El Riad Shrine Temple

Healing That Knows
No Borders
(Continued from page 15)
HandReach volunteer Qui Mc Intosh phoned the children’s
father, Yue Yun Tang, 31, in China. His hopes dashed
so many times before, Tang was skeptical, but he was willing
to try anything.
The day his children were burned, Tang had argued
with his wife about payment for two women he had hired to
help in his vegetable farm in the village of Shin Je. Tang,
interviewed this week in Galveston, said he left his wife
in the bedroom while he sat down to eat lunch Min
had prepared.
Saving brother, child
His distraught wife poured gasoline on herself
and the bed, Tang said. He turned to see his wife on
fire.
“I don’t want to live,” she shouted, according to
Tang. Flames engulfed the house within seconds.
He grabbed Min and his other son, Shen, then 4,
and ran outside. His wife had run out of the house, and he
was trying to smother her flaming clothes when he heard
Min shout, “Help me father, help me!”
Min had run back into the house and thrown herself
over Ze to shield him from the flames.
“I thought of nothing in my mind, just my brother,”
Min said. “I needed to get in to my brother.”
As neighbors formed a bucket brigade, Tang covered up
in a wet blanket and ran into the house. Emerging from the
flames, Tang handed Ze to a neighbor, and they ran toward
the nearest hospital seven miles away, running nearly half -
way there before catching a ride.
Chinese doctors saved the children’s lives but could not
or would not do the necessary surgeries. Tang’s wife suffered
burns on her arms and legs and spent three years in
prison before returning to the family.
In a country where the average annual income is
$2,786, the Tang family relied on relatives and charity to pay
for the medical care. China has no government program to
finance medical care for injured children.
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McIntosh said she learned about Min’s plight through a
Chinese Internet bulletin board and contacted Tang 18
months ago. That helped launch a search that ended with
Huang.
‘I feel so happy’
A doubtful Tang and his children, accompanied by two
Chinese doctors whom Huang had agreed to train, arrived
in Galveston in May. Donations paid for their trip.
Tang shed his doubts after the first operation. “In the
beginning I didn’t have a big hope, just a little hope,” Tang
said. “But right now I feel so happy because the improvement
is so obvious.”
After a dozen surgeries, Min, now 11, is eating
heartily. Her brother, now 4, who hadn’t learned to walk
before losing his legs to the fire, is walking for the first
time in his life with the aid of prosthetic legs. Min will
be fitted with prosthetics to replace her lower legs,
Huang said, and will be walking before she returns
to China.
The children will need numerous operations to
loosen the scar tissue as they grow, and the prosthetics
will need replacement a dozen times. Huang
said he will be keeping tabs on the children and will
advise Chinese doctors if need be.
Swartz said HandReach is opening a prosthetics
unit in Beijing that will care for the Tang children.
The unit will be connected electronically to the
Shriners Hospital for Chil dren in Springfield, Mass.,
which specializes in rehabilitation.
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16 www.elriad.org • e-mail: cactus@elriad.com • FEBRUARY 2012