Amputation to safe the life

When the 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan county, Sichuan province, in the West of China on May 12, 2008, Li Yue, an 11-year-old girl who dreamed of becoming a ballerina, was buried together with her classmates under the collapsed school building.

She was found 60 hours after the earthquake had hit. Her left leg was pinned down firmly by a floor slab and could not be moved with the danger of her falling deeper under the rubble due to a possible aftershock. Behind her, there were 4 other survivors, her classmates, waiting for rescue.

Dr. HE, a navy doctor, diagnosed her left leg to be putrescent. Since there was no massive rescue mechanic equipment to remove the collapsed buildings, the only choice to move her out of the building was to cut off and amputate her left leg.

However, her parents who were blocked outside the centre of the town for safety reasons, could not be contacted in order to get their approval. At the beginning the girl told the surgeon that she wished to save her leg, as she wanted to become a ballet dancer. However, there was no time to lose, since the girl and her classmates' lives were in acute danger.