Chinese toddler run over and ignored 'to remain in vegetative state'
The Chinese toddler who was ignored by 18 passers-by after being the victim of a hit-and-run accident in a wholesale market in southern China is likely to remain in a persistent vegetative state, according to senior hospital doctors treating her.
This is the critically injured toddler who is fighting for her life after she was run over twice and ignored by passers-by in China.
Yue Yue, two, remains in a coma after the horrific incident was captured on surveillance camera in a narrow street in Foshan city, Guandong province.
After days of treatment, the little girl has regained the ability to take weak breaths with the help of a respirator and some feeling in her arms, according to China Daily.
Her heart beat has also stabilised, but her life remains in danger and there are concerns she may have suffered extensive brain damage.
Video of the shocking moment she was hit by a car and then ignored by more than a dozen people who walked or drove past her as she lay in the street has sparked outrage in China and the world.
Both drivers who ran her over had been arrested, but internet users have flooded microblogs over the apathy of the people who left her to die.
The two men, along with people who left her on the road, claimed not to have seen the little girl in the 'dark' street.
Chinese media reports that one of the men had allegedly just broken up with his girlfriend and was on his mobile phone when he hit the girl.
The Shanghaiist claims one driver called Yue Yue's father to offer him money just before he was arrested.
It claims he said: 'You saw that girl on the CCTV footage, she didn't see where she was going, you know.
'I was on the phone when it happened, I didn't mean it.
'When I realised I had knocked her down, I thought I'd go down to see how she was.
'Then when I saw that she was already bleeding, I decided to just step on the gas pedal and escape seeing that nobody was around me.'
Authorities in Foshan presented Chen Xianmei, a rubbish collector who went to Yue Yue's aid, with $1,570 as a reward.
Another company in the city has also offered to donate $7,500 to her family and rescuer.
China's economic boom and the growing disparity between the rich and poor have made changing social values a contentious topic, with some lamenting what they see as materialism replacing morals.
Yueyue's father Wang told Chinese television: 'Yueyue is so lovely. If I quarrelled with her mother and if her mother cried, she would tell us not to cry, she always tried to amuse us.
'I just hope my child will wake up and call me Dad again.'
China's equivalent of Twitter, Sina Weibo, has seen 4.4million comments posted on the little girl's plight, under the heading 'please end the cold-heartedness'.
One user called the incident 'the shame of the Chinese people'.
Another user, under the name Xiaozhong001, wrote: 'Really, what is up with our society? I saw this and my heart went cold.
'Everyone needs to do some soul-searching about ending this kind of indifference.'
Many people in China are hesitant to help people who appear to be in distress over fears they will be blamed.
High-profile law suits have ended with good Samaritans ordered to pay hefty fines to individuals they sought to help.
The incident has also sparked a series of soul-searching articles in Chinese newspapers, including the Guangzho Daily and People's Daily Online.
