Desperation, money drive patients abroad

[Wang Xiaoying/China Daily]

Among the excited shopaholics and selfie-takers among China's outbound travelers is another group - more serious and usually carrying their medical records.

They are going for medical treatment abroad and many are traveling for a last chance at life.

Xue Lingling is one of the lucky ones.

When Xue's face began swelling up, she visited numerous doctors in different hospitals, before a reputed hospital in Shanghai finally diagnosed her condition as non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Her immediate and constant question was: how long will I live?

The answers were ambiguous and pessimistic. Doctors in China told her that she might have to undergo an operation that had a low success rate and would scar her face.

She refused to accept this and decided to go to the United States for treatment.