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Melamine-hit babies slowly on the mend

By Zhu Zhe and Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-10 07:20

SHIJIAZHUANG: The anesthesia began to wear off, the pain started kicking in, and 15-month-old Zang Xiaoning started to cry.

The little girl underwent surgery on Tuesday to have a kidney stone removed at Hebei Children's Hospital; and a day later, her mother was still anxious.

"The anaesthetic is losing effect. The pain will grow," Ma Huifang said.

Xiaoning, born two months premature, had been fed Sanlu infant formula, which was later found to have been tainted with melamine, a toxic industrial chemical.

A doctor gives medical examination to a child with kidney diseases at the Gansu Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, Sept. 18, 2008. [Xinhua]

The baby ended up with a big kidney stone and doctors had to conduct an operation to save her life. She is still in "quite serious condition", doctors said.

Xiaoning is 34-year-old Ma's only child. "I never expected such a thing could befall her," she said, using her sleeve to dab tears.

The family is from a poor village in Daming county of Handan, Hebei province, and survives by farming on only 4 mu (0.27 hectare) of land. Xiaoning's father Zang Chaosheng said his wife was short of breast milk and "we had no choice but to feed the baby powder milk".

"Sanlu is the only brand we could afford. One 400g pack costs only 18 yuan ($2.60)."

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At least Zang doesn't have to worry about hospital bills because the government has ordered free treatment to all affected children. A type-B ultrasonic test costs at least 120 yuan, and Xiaoning has one to two such checks every day.

Xiaoning was among 10,666 infants and children still in hospital after being fed contaminated infant formula.

The Ministry of Health said on Wednesday that eight of the children were still in serious condition, and 36,144 had been discharged from hospital.

While the number of children in hospital is declining, new cases are still cropping up.

The ministry said that on Wednesday alone, 539 children were admitted after drinking melamine-laced milk, while 2,067 were discharged.

It did not give an overall figure for the number of children affected so far but earlier figures from the ministry suggested more than 54,000 children had been sickened by toxic milk.

No more infants had succumbed to illness, the ministry said on its website, which means the death toll stands at four.

Apart from Xiaoning, 40 children up to 3 years old are being treated at Hebei Children's Hospital, all suffering from kidney stones after being fed Sanlu formula - but things are looking up for some.

Ma Zhi'en, a young father, said the stone in his 18-month-old son was getting smaller.

In the same ward, Zhou Boyu, her sweater dotted with pink Mickey Mouse figures, fixed her eyes on the toys of one of her roommates.

After nearly a week at the hospital, the 11-month-old can now eat pig liver porridge, said Zhou Weidong, the 38-year-old father.

"We just hope she gets well tomorrow. No parent can sleep easy in this room until the babies are healthy again," said Zhou.

Zhang Tingji, deputy chief of the hospital, said the number of children seeking checks and treatment was dropping. "We received 1,500 children on Sept 18; Thursday, we had about 100. We expect the number to further decrease in the coming days," he said.

Zhang added that in the past five days, only 2 out of 500 babies were found to have kidney stones. "The ratio is much lower than in last month."

But as the health crisis recedes, many parents now worry whether they will get any compensation from Sanlu, or even the government.

"We haven't heard anything about it. We don't know what to do and where to ask," Xiaoning's farther Zang said, adding that his family is still in debt.

"But there must be some explanation to us," said another parent, Li Aiming, whose son still has three stones in his kidneys.

"Everyone here is from the countryside. Our babies cannot have good milk food because we're poor."