Chinese boy to get heart surgery.

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Chinese boy to get life-saving heart surgery
CTV.ca News Staff

As a young Afghanistan boy returns home after life-saving heart surgery in Canada, a Chinese boy has arrived here for a similar shot at a future.

Wang Mang Bian, who arrived in Canada Saturday night with his mother, can thank Canadian engineer Terry Chu for making it possible.

Chu is living in China and heard of the eight-year-old boy's plight from a local hospital.

Working with the charitable organization Rotary International, Chu raised $60,000 -- enough to pay for the surgery.

Asked why he did it, Chu said: Another chance, another life for them ..."

Without Chu's help, Wang Man's prognosis would be bleak.

China's economic growth is breathtaking, but there is a divide in the country between an increasingly affluent urban class and a rural one that is being left behind.

Wang Mang comes from the latter. His family lives in Fengyang, which is west of Shanghai.

His father was a poor farmer who died of cancer two years ago, leaving his family with nothing.

Jiayu Bian, Wang Mang's mother, was forced to sell the family home and move into a run-down barn.

As a result, Wang Mang, his sister and mother now share a space where animals used to sleep.

The condition afflicting Wang Mang is known as CTGA, characterized by his swollen toes and bluish fingers.

It prevents proper blood flow through the heart. Surgery is the only cure.

"If no surgery, I think the child will die, suffering the heart failure," said Dr. Chun Chen, a heart surgeon.

Chinese health officials estimate there are about 3,000 children in their country suffering from CTGA.

But the country doesn't not have a health care system similar to Canada's, and if one doesn't have the money for life-saving surgery, their prospects are grim.

Because of Chu's initiative and the generosity of many donors, Wang Mang is coming to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children. Doctors there specialize in the surgery he needs. Wang Mang will meet with them on Monday.

It is the same hospital where Djamshid Popal, a 10-year-old from Afghanistan, received his life-saving surgery. He left for Afghanistan on Friday evening.

"I tell Mang: 'So many nice people are paying to help you. So when you grow up, you should also be a nice man,'" Jiayu said, a tear trickling down her cheek.

Wang Mang's main concern is a bit more short-term.

"I can't wait to play marbles again with my friends," he said.