An 18-month-old Saudi baby has suffered from a rare condition known as thumb hypoplasia since birth, and local hospitals diagnosed it as untreatable. Unwilling to give up, the parents learned through their relentless search that medical institutions in China could help preserve their child’s fingers. They flew thousands of miles to China with hope to seek medical treatment.
At Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, a sophisticated surgery brought a turning point for the baby. Doctors borrowed a section of bone from his metacarpals to reconstruct the thumb’s skeletal structure and restore its function, while ensuring the normal development of both hands.
From thorough preoperative briefing to attentive postoperative care, the family’s medical journey at Union Hospital dispelled all their unease about being in a foreign country. “Everything went even more smoothly than we had imagined!” The family members’ words conveyed not only gratitude, but also recognition of the Chinese medical team’s outstanding expertise.
“As a hospital that has participated in providing medical assistance abroad for more than 60 years, we have in recent years actively responded to national calls by steadily advancing cooperation with counterparts from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative in areas such as personnel exchanges and technical training,” said Xia Jiahong, president of Union Hospital. He expressed the hope that through such international cooperation, the hospital can contribute to promoting better health and well-being for people in China and other countries.
