In a heartbreaking story out of Fuzhou, China, a woman named Ni Qiong was forced to put up her 1-year-old daughter for sale on the street in order to come up with the approximately $15,730 USD needed to pay for her husband’s medical bills.
The husband worked as a builder and suffered severe injuries after falling from a scaffolding on the third floor. Doctors determined that he needed surgery, but would not start surgery until she came up with the money to do it. For his injuries, her husband’s boss had handed him a wad of cash totaling 7,000 yuan (roughly $1,100).
Being a poor migrant worker, the woman simply could not afford the rest of the bill, which led her to think she had to do the unthinkable.
The sign she held reads:
“Please buy my daughter. My husband is waiting for surgery fees in the hospital as his boss ran away. I would like to see my daughter and save my husband.”
According to Time, medical treatment in China is expensive and hard to find, while the government-run medical insurance program doesn’t pay for much.
The woman also had another board that read:
“Boss fled after industrial accident and we don’t have the money for treatment. I’m willing to sell my child to save her father.”
Ni stayed silent when asked whether she could live with selling her own child. Her daughters then begged her mother to reconsider:
“No. Please don’t sell our sister.”
One of the girls also told Tecent News that her father considered selling her little sister when she was born, but was talked out of it by her mother.
Despite standing outside for four hours, no one offered to purchase the woman’s daughter (fortunately). However, the woman was able to collect 700 yuan (roughly $113.12) from a few sympathetic passers-by.
For anyone who’s interested in helping the family, Tecent News published the husband’s bank account information for those who want to help the family: 6212261402012821754 (Bank: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, account owner: Zhou Guixing).
[Source: Shanghaiist]
