Nine-year-old Li Jianming is recovering at home in Taijiang county, in southwestern China's Guizhou province, after major open-heart surgery at a hospital in Beijing last year to treat a congenital defect.

The Grade 2 pupil, who had the surgery in July at Fuwai Hospital, which is renowned nationwide for its treatment of cardiovascular diseases, spent more than six months in hospital last year.

Jianming's father, Li Yunqing, said his son, who returned home from Beijing in late December, is still weak, but he is confident he will recover soon and return to school.

"Doctors told me my son's surgery was very successful," Li said. "All the indicators were normal when he was discharged, and his disease could be cured completely."

Li said Jianming will return to Fuwai Hospital for reexamination in about a month.

Top cardiovascular surgeon Hu Shengsou, the president of Fuwai Hospital who operated on Jianming, described the surgery, which lasted about 15 hours, as one of the most complicated and difficult operations in the world.

Jianming, a member of the Miao ethnic group that makes up 98 percent of Taijiang county's population, is just one of many young heart disease patients in the county to have received treatment thanks to a medical aid project headed by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to help those in need in rural areas.

Screenings of more than 24,000 students from 101 schools in nine townships, which started in March 2018 in Taijiang, detected 49 children with congenital heart disease.

Jianming, the most serious case, was sent to Beijing for treatment, and 12 others went to Fuwai Yunnan Cardiovascular Hospital in Kunming, capital of southwestern China's Yunnan province.

Li said the family earns about 40,000 yuan ($5,800) a year. Jianming's medical fees totaled more than 1.7 million yuan when he was discharged at the end of last year.

They were paid by Fuwai Hospital and donations to the medical aid project, he said, adding that without help from the public and the central government, his son would not have been cured.

Zhao Yandi contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 08/14/2019 page4)