Life on the edge in the 'village in the city'

A cruel reality

Li Shuyi, 5, has been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. His family has spent all their savings to treat his illness. Gao Bo / for China Daily

About seven months ago, Zhang Yongxin, her husband and son, moved into a rented 10-sq-m room in Wujianong, where they sleep on boards placed across piles of bricks. An old-fashioned wardrobe is the only furniture in the room.

Zhang is in her early 40s. She hails from Fuyang, a city in the north of the province. When her son, Dai Sibo, was born four years ago, Zhang and her husband already had two daughters. The girls have been living with their grandparents in Fuyang since their mother, father, and brother moved to the city,

The boy's birth put even greater financial strain on the impoverished parents, but they were ecstatic with the arrival of their long-awaited son, despite being fined more than 10,000 yuan ($1,600) for violating the national family planning policy.

In some rural parts of China, if the first child of a family is a girl, the couple is allowed to have another child without incurring a penalty. However, a third child violates the family planning policy and results in a fine.

"We were satisfied with life then," Zhang said.

The happiness didn't last long. About seven months ago, when the family was busy harvesting wheat, Zhang noticed the boy was running a fever and his legs were stiff. She took him to a small clinic in the village and was given antipyretics to lower his temperature.

A few days later, the boy got a cold and injured one of his legs while helping with the harvest.

Because Sibo kept crying out, "My leg hurts", Zhang took him to the township hospital, where the doc-tors concluded that he had calcium deficiency. They prescribed some cold medicine, but nothing for his injured leg because there was no visible wound.

Three days later, the boy's leg was still causing him discomfort, so Zhang took him to the hospital at Linquan county. The doctors were unable to help, so they advised Zhang to take the boy to the municipal hospital, where he was diagnosed with my elomonocytic leukemia, an aggressive form of the disease.

Zhang fainted when she heard the diagnosis, which was confirmed by physicians at the Anhui Provincial Children's Hospital.

The story was much the same for Li Shuyi, 5, from Bengbu, and 4-year-old Zhao Xingwang, also from Fuyang-who were both diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leu-kemia- and for 2-year-old Dai Ziyi from Bozhou who has acute mixed-lineage leukemia.

"We never thought about the possibility of such a bad result, nor did the doctors in the less-developed areas. After talking with other families in the hospital, I found malnutrition or skin diseases were two common diagnoses by the doctors in rural areas at first", said Li Xiao-jing, whose 3-year-old daughter Li Yaqi has ganglioneuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer, but was originally diagnosed with calcium deficiency by doctors in her hometown.

Some of these families are now neighbors in Wujianong, where most of children are 10 or younger, and have leukemia, a cancer that commonly affects children.

The parents are trying to save their children's lives, but for many it seems the best they can do is to save money to pay for treatment, even though they feel as though they are throwing money down a black hole.