Society

Xinjiang kids with heart disease get free surgery

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-04-26 01:00

URUMQI - Forty children afflicted with congenital heart disease in West China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region are heading to Beijing, where they will receive free surgery offered by a charity program.

The children, from different ethnic groups including Han, Uygur, Kazakh, Xibe, and Dongxiang, boarded a train to Beijing with their parents on Monday. They will receive treatment at the Chinese Armed Police General Hospital.

Sponsored by the China Charity Federation, Chinese Armed Police General Hospital and Xinjiang Women's Federation, the charity program aims to provide free surgery to impoverished children with congenital heart disease in Xinjiang. The program earlier helped 68 children.

China has about 4 million people suffering from congenital heart disease, and the number is increasing by 150,000 cases per year.

Experts are calling for better care for children with heart problems.  There are about 2 million children in the country with congenital heart problems who remain untreated.