Dr Bao and I traveled together to an orphanage in Henan province in mid-april. He volunteered to exam the children who needed medical attention. That was when we saw this tiny 3.5-month old baby girl - Hui. Her huge eyes captured Dr Bao’s heart and Dr Bao had fallen in love with this baby since then, but she was so sick. She had spinal bifida, dehydration, pneumonia and she was malnourished. With the orphanage’s help, we arranged for her to come to SCMC within 24 hours. She was admitted to ICU right away upon arrival and received her surgery about a week later.

Hui stayed at the hospital for about a month, she grew from 2.5kg to 4kg. Everyone on the floor knew her because she loved to lift up her head to look around while she laid on her tummy. She had beautiful big eyes. When she was looking around, she had a deep expression on her face like she was thinking of something serious!

Hui has been Dr Bao’s favorite girl. Don’t even try to tell him another child is cute. He would reply “Cuter than Hui? No way! Who can possibly beat those eyes?”

Hui’s incision has had difficulties recovering because she was, and still is so tiny at 5.5-month old. She still comes back to the hospital every day to change her dressing. But despite of that, she has grown into a chubby baby already! I think the pictures below say it all!

I still remember it was a Thursday afternoon in May when I received this phone call from an orphanage from Henan province. On the phone, they told me they just found a new baby girl with broken spinal bifida. That is Baby Bing. I happened to be with Dr Bao then and I quickly passed the phone to Dr Bao, he decided the baby should be sent to SCMC asap. Soon after that I learned the orphanage had put this baby girl with her caregiver onto a train to Shanghai already.

I walked out of the hospital that evening, all in a sudden realizing I actually had no funding available for her at all. We did have some donation at the hospital account, but that was only barely enough for the previous 3 kids we just helped. Thinking about Bing was on her way to Shanghai now, I picked up my phone and sent a text msg to a good friend of mine who runs a fashion design company. Within a minute, she replied “No problem, I would have my accountant wire 35,000RMB to the hospital account right away.” That msg really put me on ease, but then another worry came up and I truly had a sleepless evening. I kept wondering if Baby Bing could hang onto those hours and made it through.

The next day I was waiting anxiously at the hospital for Bing’s arrival. A very kind volunteer went to pick her up with her driver. When she arrived, everyone was shocked to see her broken sac. It was not only broken, but it was completely drained. It was only the skin left. My heart just sank! Dr Bao had taught me before that baby with broken spinal bifida hardly survived over 48 hours. At this time, Bing cried out loud, the caregiver figured out she was starving and quickly made her a bottle. That worked - she stopped crying right away. Also at this time, Dr Bao came to the room. He was shocked to see the broken sac too. He tried to clean it and some smelly pus flew out. His face just turned dark and he sat there speechless. My heart almost stopped and I knew it was not going to be good news. He shook his head and told me “do u still want the surgery to be done? chance is very small now as infection might have traveled to her brain already.” We just stood there and were not sure what to do. What a sad moment! When the room was all in silence, Bing cried out loud again, really loud! It broke the silence! And I suddenly saw this strong fighter in front of me. It was already a miracle that she had survived so far. It was also a miracle she could still cry with strength and loudness. I believed that cry her way telling us “I want to live!” At that moment, I knew what my decision would be. I nodded my head to Dr Bao.

Dr Bao quickly called the OR and started to page other doctors, but then when he learned that Bing just had her bottle, his face turned dark again! He canceled the OR and hung up the phone. Oh my! What a terrible mistake we just made. Because of the bottle, now we had to wait for 6 hours before her surgery! That would be 10pm then! Would Bing survive for another 6 hours? Would infection go too far by then?

Those 6 hours went by like 6 years. We were so restless, but Bing was sleeping sound, even giving some smile from time to time on her little cheeks. Dr Bao didn’t go home either. By 10pm, he went into OR. There was nobody at the OR receiption room, while in the day time this place is always packed! It was only Bing’s caregiver, me and another volunteer. Dr Bao came out at midnight, Bing was sent to ICU. Dr Bao was pleased but warned me if Bing would develop a fever, then the chance of recovery would be almost zero. So, I guessed I still couldn’t put myself at ease yet.

The next day was weekend, but Dr Bao still came to work to check on Bing and he brought me along. I saw a nurse standing right next to Bing. She happily reported “no fever, no fever”. Wow, was I happy to hear that!! I took a look at her and she was sleeping on her tummy, still smiled from time to time from her dreams! What a sweet baby!
Several days went by, Bing never developed a fever and she was soon trasnfered into the regular ward. There she continued to charm everyone with her smiles while she slept. Her recovery was uneventful. That was unbelievable!! About 10 days later, Dr Bao told me with a big big smile “Bing can be discharged tomorrow, and her bill is the lowest among all your kids as she didn’t run any fever so medicine cost was low!” I was speechless again, but compared to the moment when Bing was admitted, this time, with joy and thankfulness!

Bing has been discharged for a bit more than a month now. She’s now recovering beautifully and growing. I mean growing!! She still cries loud, but guess what, that’s her personality! She’s that strong fighter who fought herself through impossible! She’s truly our miracle baby!!

“Baobei” means “Precious, priceless, a treasure”. It is pronounced as “baobay”. Chinese parents call their babies “baobei”, indicating they are precious and cherished. We picked Baobei to be our foundation’s name because the children we are helping are as precious. Although they were born with special needs and that they don’t have parents, they are definitely still baobeis.

As we work closely with Dr Bao - the neurosurgeon from SCMC, a lot of people thought his name is Baobei. He actually proudly jokes that Baobei is his foundation. If you ask him now what his name is, he would answer “Baobei” instead of his real name. He enjoys being a Baobei member. It is such a coincident that after we chose the name “Baobei”, we realized the first child we helped is Baby Bei while his surgery was performed by Dr Bao. Love it!