2-month-old daughter is alive, but where?
Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008 4:32 PM
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Beijing, China
By Kari Huus, msnbc.com reporter
CHENGDU -- Help finally arrived in the mountain village of Liuzu four days after the earthquake struck. The first to be airlifted out that morning were the injured.
Among those loaded on the Chinese Air Force helicopter was Wei Anrong, who had broken ribs when her house collapsed. Wei’s husband, Ma Hong, also handed a tiny bundle to a soldier, then stepped back as the chopper lifted and swept off toward Chengdu. That is the last he saw of their 2-month old daughter, Anqi.
Ma was among those fit enough to make the 10-hour trek out of the devastated area. He made his way south to the provincial capital of Chengdu, and on Wednesday —with the help of his cell phone — found his wife recovering at the Sichuan Number One People’s Hospital. But to his dismay, there was no sign of Anqi, and no paper trail showing where she ended up.
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| Kari Huus / msnbc.com |
| Ma Hong, right, and his wife, Wei Anrong, were reunited Wednesday at the Sichuan Number One People's Hospital in Chengdu, China. |
Six days after the evacuation, Ma pulls out his cell phone, which has a tiny picture of Anqi as the screen saver, and shows it to a reporter. He says it never occurred to him that he might one day need to use it to find her.
He says he wishes he has asked the soldier the right questions, but adds that there wasn’t much opportunity.
"
The noise of the helicopter was so loud, I couldn
’t talk,
" he says.
In the context of this catastrophe, which killed more than 50,000 people, many of them children, the good news is that Anqi is likely alive and healthy. But the scope of the disaster is such that aid and recovery workers are still focused on more urgent problems than a little girl gone missing.
So Ma, a farmer with little education who rarely visits the city, is left to find her on his own.
Chengdu is a city of approximately 10.4 million people and dozens of hospitals in normal times. Now, hospitals are putting people wherever they have beds. Wei is recovering in the gynecology wing of her hospital, while others earthquake victims are in the cancer ward and the plastic surgery section. Staff, victims and visitors circulate through the hospital with few formalities. Meantime, there are dozens of makeshift sites caring for the displaced.
As of Thursday, Ma had searched three Chengdu hospitals, with no luck.
