Young girl in danger of losing limbs after heroically running into burning home to rescue disabled father
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Fourteen-year-old Guo Jiajia woke to flames in the living room. After escaping her apartment, she stood for a moment in the doorway before returning into the fiery hell of burning smoke.
Highlights
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
12/6/2016 (8 years ago)
Published in Asia Pacific
Keywords: Guo Jiajia, China, fire, disabled
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to China Daily, Lai Rongqing, Jaijia's mother, awoke at 3 a.m. Saturday morning when she heard a loud sound in the living room.
Upon opening the door, she discovered the room filled with smoke and several of their electric appliances were in flames.
She woke her husband, who has had trouble walking since a car accident in 2010.
Lai then ran to her mother-in-law and daughter's rooms to warn them before running downstairs to shut off the power and gas supply to their building in an attempt to keep the fire from spreading.
When she returned to her apartment, she noticed Jaijia was standing outside the door. Content her daughter was safe, Lai began knocking on neighbors' doors to warn them.
Lai's husband Guo Hongyon and his mother had already reached safety and, with help from neighbors, the fire was quickly put out.
It was when the fire was slowly dying that Hongyon noticed the legs of his daughter through the thick black smoke. He rushed into the apartment to fetch his little girl, who is only a junior middle school student.
She was severely burned and unconscious. Lai quickly poured cold water onto her daughter's charred face, which woke Guo.
"Why did you return to the room after you got out?" Lai asked her critically injured daughter.
"I was looking for dad and I was afraid that he was still in there," was Jaijia's response.
Jaijia was rushed to Chongqing Southwest Hospital, where it was discovered she received burns to 80 percent of her body and her respiratory tract was injured due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to the Daily Mail, Jaijia's hands were so badly burned they were bend and unable to move and her pajamas melted into her bleeding flesh.
Since being hospitalized, Jaijia has been unable to speak and her father shared, "Her condition is still unstable."
Jaijia is able to nod her head and is conscious but the severity of her burns may lead to a double amputation.
The treatment for her care is estimated at a minimum of 1 million yuan, or $145,000 - much more than the family can afford with Lai's measly monthly income of 1,700 yuan.
Chongqing Southwest Hospital reported a local report tugged at the public's heartstrings, leading them to donate just over 1 millions yuan to help with Jaijia's medical bills.
Jaijia's first skin graft surgery is expected to occur on December 7, with help from the donations that came streaming in.
Please pray for the brave child's full recovery in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
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