The Shenzhen mayor's hotline has helped save the life of a migrant worker's seriously ill infant daughter.

The desperate father contacted the hotline after a hospital refused to admit the child because the father had no money.

The father, Qin Jihu, had done volunteer work for 12 years in Shenzhen and had been awarded a national silver medal for donating blood every year.

Qin was awakened by his 2-year-old daughter crying at about 11:30 pm Friday. The child was vomiting.

Having little money, Qin bought some cheap cold medicine at a nearby pharmacy. When the child's condition had not improved by 1:30 am, Qin took her to Feng-huang Hospital nearby.

"When I told the doctors I had only 5.8 yuan (US$0.7), the doctors would not have a look at us," Qin said.

"I begged them to save my child first, but the doctors said they would not admit the child because the disease was too dangerous. We waited until 2 am but still nobody attended us. My daughter became too exhausted to cry."

Becoming desperate, Qin called the mayor's hotline, 8210-0999. An official immediately contacted Fenghuang Hospital, asking them to treat the girl.

The official also asked police from a nearby police station to help Qin.

At 2:30 am, Fenghuang Hospital gave the girl a transfusion and then sent her to another hospital for further treatment.

The girl, who was suffering from acute gastro enteritis and alimentary canal breeding, was soon out of danger after intensive care at the second hospital, said a doctor.

"Thanks to timely treatment, she will recover in four to five days," the doctor said.

Qin said the official on the Mayor's Hotline had been very kind as had the second hospital.

The girl's mother died when she was only a few months' old. The girl was suffering from severe malnutrition and had twice been seriously ill, said the father.

(Shenzhen Daily November 26, 2003)