Home Visit Volunteers Were Shocked by “Xiao Procedure”

Li-Hui Di, Science News (Chinese) Vol. 22, Nov. 23, 2009

One of the volunteers, Lin Liu engaged in the investigation of the “Xiao Procedure”, which was claimed to have an overall success rate of 85% to treat the urology disease (spinal bifida) by surgery. From Nov. 10 to Nov. 18, she visited the patients who underwent the Xiao Procedure. Due to the patients are scattered in different places, Lin Liu had to travel from Sichuan province to Shanxi province in those cold snowy days. The route she followed were Deyang and Guangyuan in Sichuan and then to Linfen and Gaoping in Shanxi.

“No patient was cured by the Xiao Procedure” she said, “On the contrary, the surgery may cause disabilities.”

Lin Liu told the Science Journal that she felt the patients are numb and live in pain. Their diseases cannot be cured by the big hospitals like those in Beijing. In their hopeless waiting, they saw the advertisements (Xiao Procedure) from the official and most authorized Chinese media --- CCTV. The professional doctors were from Zhengzhou University Medical School.

Lin Liu visited 4 patients in total. None patient is cured by the so-called Xiao Procedure and even disabled by the surgeries. Two of the patients are still minors. The other two are 19-years old but they were also minors when they were performed spinal surgeries.

The child in Meishan county could walk by himself and climbed the stairs of hospital building before his surgery, excepted that his legs had a kind of deformity. After his surgery by cutting off parts of nerves in Sep. 2007, his legs started to fester. Two years later, his two legs were amputated at a local hospital of Meishan.

The kid’s parents cherished great hopes before the surgery because the hospital had promised them 85% success rate and most of the patients could get cured. They trusted the doctors because the doctors were kind and looked very trustful. Then, the parents signed a consent before the surgery, as if it was just a routine. Without further explanation was offered, they could not fully understand the risk of serious complications.

The second child in Shanxi province could walk as well before surgery, but disabled now. After surgery, the muscles of his feet and legs started to shrink and are now obviously deformity. One year ago before operation, he just needed 1000 Chinese Yuan a year to buy diapers for his urology disease. But now, not only his legs are disabled, but also his original urology disease is more serious. In 2008, he visited the Jishuitan hospital in Beijing, and was told by the doctor that it is impossible to do any further treatment like operation.

The third kid in Deyang county was felt lucky by his mother at the beginning after the Xiao Procedure, in case of that the disease of her kid was not very serious before operation and her kid was still young. Most of all, the disease seemed to be cured a little after operation and did not get worse as others. But half a year later, the leg of the was operated started to get shrink and thin.

“The whole journey was very depressed,” Lin Liu said, “It was too cruel to ask questions about the patients.”

Lin Liu told the journal that the kids who are harmed by the Xiao Procedure absent the naughty, active and curious of normal kids, and they are all like to keep silence. The parents of these kids were always starting to cry when they told these stories to others. They were hopeful at the beginning of the operation, but now they are all hopeless and despair.

All the kids are lost from their schools and they do not want to go. One was in the middle school and gave up. He is just a small boy, but he can not walk, and can not play like other kids either, which is not convenient to him.

Lin Liu also said she will follow up more patients who were operated by the Xiao Procedure. She is looking for more evidences, in case that the management of the Xiao Procedure will argue in court that she is just looking for unsuccessful examples of the treatments. One patient call Little Shanshan was advertised by the doctors who promote the Xiao Procedure is not an successful operation either. “We are trying to find any successful ones, but we can’t.” she said.

About the family economy situation of the patients, Lin Liu told the journalist, the one in Meishan county is able to pay the operation fee, but the parents are very angry to the hospital, because they were cheated and harmed. They want to lawsuit the hospital is not only for returning of their costs. The kid in Deyang, his family has several kids and his operation fee was paid by his relatives. The one in Guangyuan also told to her that they want to lawsuit the Procedure is not for the operation fee either but they need the justice is done.

The last one in Shanxi province, his father was a coal mall worker and is lay-off now. This family is living in the cave of a mountain and has no heater in this cold winter. His father raises 30 pigs that why he needs to save the heater for the piggy cubs, otherwise they will get sick in the cold. He has finished high school and wanted to make the justice done as well.