Kids’ Surgery in China
THOUGH relatively simple Pediatric Surgery could have a great impact in China, it is neither common nor popular. Because of the country's one-child policy,parents often prefer a dead child to one who is disabled or sickly,says pediatrician Zhang Jinzhe of the Beijing Children's Hospital. Parents whose first-born has such common conditions as underdeveloped lung tissues or bile ducts typically "give up hope and plan a second child," he notes. According to Asin Medical News , Zhang told the Congress of the Asian Association of Pediatric Surgeons that if a baby is born with a minor defect like a cleft palate, parents want it cured as soon as possible. The Hong Kong chapter of Operation Smile, a charity which provides free plastic surgery to disfigured children in China, found that youngsters with harelips called “rabbit children” were often abandoned.Pediatric Surgery essential to correcting such birth defects has long been while the pioneering congress of specialists eas held only in 1980. Zhang says that operations on newborns are usually performed by general surgeons.