7 years old Boy cares for his Paralysed Father after he fell out of building and his mother abandoned them
This touching story of a young boy who has nursed his paralysed father since his mother walked out on them is guaranteed to make your heart sink.
Ou Tongming, a 37-year-old laborer from Wangpu village in southwest China's Guizhou province, plunged from the second story of construction property in 2013, suffering a spinal cord injury that paralysed him from the waist down.
After the poverty-stricken family sapped their life savings on medical treatments, Tongming's wife fled with their three-year-old daughter, never to be heard from again, leaving seven-year-old Ou Yanglin to be the sole caretaker of his bedridden father.
For over a year, Yanglin has woken at 6am every morning to feed his dad before going to school, teaching himself to cook rice and buy vegetables from a local market. At lunchtime he rushes home to feed his father again.
Tongming said he was on the brink of suicide from thinking about how much of a burden he was placing on his son, but he thought better of leaving him all alone.
'I wasn't determined as I couldn't bear to leave the kid orphaned,' he told local media, according to the Shanghaiist.
Yanglin, who only just started attending the first grade, scours the streets after school to collect scraps which can make up to up to 20 yuan (A$4) a day. Outside of this, the pair are surviving on a 300 RMB ($AU66)-a-month disabled persons handout.
The shocking circumstances of the mother's departure are known to the family's neighbours, who have endeavoured to offer help wherever possible, but who are also just as impoverished.
'My father needs medicine, but I don't have any money,' Yanglin told local media.
After returning home each day, the schoolboy helps to turn his father on his side and applies medicine to his body, which is plagued by bedsores from lying down for so long, one of which has ulcerated and spread and become an infection on his pelvis.
Yanglin said more than anything else he that he hopes to 'grow up soon' in order to earn money to cure his father's afflictions.
'I can't live without my father,' he said.
Yanglin's story has spread like wildfire, with sympathisers calling for a charity fund to be set up in his name to offer financial aid to the family.
Ou Tongming, a 37-year-old laborer from Wangpu village in southwest China's Guizhou province, plunged from the second story of construction property in 2013, suffering a spinal cord injury that paralysed him from the waist down.
After the poverty-stricken family sapped their life savings on medical treatments, Tongming's wife fled with their three-year-old daughter, never to be heard from again, leaving seven-year-old Ou Yanglin to be the sole caretaker of his bedridden father.
For over a year, Yanglin has woken at 6am every morning to feed his dad before going to school, teaching himself to cook rice and buy vegetables from a local market. At lunchtime he rushes home to feed his father again.
Tongming said he was on the brink of suicide from thinking about how much of a burden he was placing on his son, but he thought better of leaving him all alone.
'I wasn't determined as I couldn't bear to leave the kid orphaned,' he told local media, according to the Shanghaiist.
Yanglin, who only just started attending the first grade, scours the streets after school to collect scraps which can make up to up to 20 yuan (A$4) a day. Outside of this, the pair are surviving on a 300 RMB ($AU66)-a-month disabled persons handout.
The shocking circumstances of the mother's departure are known to the family's neighbours, who have endeavoured to offer help wherever possible, but who are also just as impoverished.
'My father needs medicine, but I don't have any money,' Yanglin told local media.
After returning home each day, the schoolboy helps to turn his father on his side and applies medicine to his body, which is plagued by bedsores from lying down for so long, one of which has ulcerated and spread and become an infection on his pelvis.
Yanglin said more than anything else he that he hopes to 'grow up soon' in order to earn money to cure his father's afflictions.
'I can't live without my father,' he said.
Yanglin's story has spread like wildfire, with sympathisers calling for a charity fund to be set up in his name to offer financial aid to the family.
Music: Rains Will Fall by Kevin MacLeod
Source : DailyMail, Shangaiist , Youth.cn
where can I send money to the Fund?
ReplyDeleteHello Susan,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately there is no any foundation for Ou Tongming and I couldn't see any fresh news about him even in chinese sites.
But if I can find new info , will let you know too.
Have a great weekend.