Xinjiang baby recovers from heart disease

An 8-month-old patient from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region with complicated congenital heart disease is recovering after surgery at a hospital in Beijing on Tuesday.

Doctors at Huaxin Hospital operated for 10 hours on the patient, who had eight kinds of cardiac deformities, including a double outlet right ventricle.

Several local hospitals had declined to offer treatment due to the complexity of the child's condition.

Congenital heart disease claimed more lives of under-5s than any other disease in China in 2010.

In 2012, all provinces and regions in China began to offer more reimbursement for the treatment of this disease for children from rural areas, to avoid putting too much of a financial burden on their families.

Contact the writer at wangqingyun@chinadaily.com.cn