Teng Wei has been in a coma in Beijing 999 Emergency Center for almost six months and no one knows if or when she will come out of it.

What left the three-year-old on the verge of death was a traffic accident at the end of last year.

She might never know what the tragedy means to her -- that it killed her parents and left her a vegetable.

Nor can she understand what the tragedy means to her grandfather Teng Yongyi, who, in his 60s, is worried about not being able to pay the medical bills for the treatment of his severely injured granddaughter.

Trying to put behind him the grief of losing his son and daughter-in-law, the elderly man even says he wants to donate one of his kidneys to get some money to pay for any kind of treatment that might bring the girl back to life.

Teng Yongyi's choice is out of desperation.

More than six months have passed since the accident, but the family has received no compensation from the parties involved.

Faced with the heavy expenses for the treatment of his granddaughter, whose situation seems hopeless, the elderly man feels helpless.

But he says that the new Law on Road Traffic Safety, which took effect on May 1, might be the last hope for Teng Wei.

Tragic night

The tragedy happened on the night of December 11 last year, when Teng Wei and her mother, riding on a tricycle driven by her father, were on their way home after visiting the little girl's aunt in Changping District of the capital city.

Suddenly, an overtaking car crashed into their tricycle throwing it about 30 meters through the air, but the car drove off, immediately leaving the scene.

The mother was killed on impact, while the father and daughter were rushed to the Beijing 999 Emergency Center by kind-hearted passers-by. The father later died.

"The girl was in a critical condition when she reached the emergency centre. Her pupils had dilated and she was suffering from serious brain haematoma," said Feng Lei, director of the Department of Neurosurgery in the emergency centre.

Emergency surgery saved her life, but Teng Wei was left in a coma.

"There is little hope of her regaining consciousness because of the serious damage to the brain, and even if she does, she will likely have very serious mental and physical problems," Feng said.

However, Teng Yongyi clings ferociously to that slim hope.

He sold the houses he owned in his hometown in Dezhou, in Shandong Province, to pay the medical expenses for the girl and the funeral costs for his son and daughter-in-law, which has already cost him more than 100,000 yuan (US$12,000), a gigantic sum of money for a common Chinese farmer.

"I have no choice but to sell one of my kidneys to pay the heavy medical expense," he says, adding what worried him most is the girl's future.

"If I die one day, who can take care of her?" the elderly man lamented.

Compensation difficulty

The hit-and-run driver Wang Haitao, a native of Changping District who had borrowed the car from his friend Wang Peng, turned himself in to local police on the night of the accident.

According to the Changping District Traffic Police Bureau, Wang should take first responsibility for the accident because of his negligent driving.

On April 22, Changping District People's Court sentenced Wang Haitao to five years in jail.

He is now in prison, but this provides little if any relief for Teng Yongyi, since his demand for compensation has so far yielded no results.

On April 14, Teng Yongyi filed a lawsuit against the culprit and the car's owner, at the Changping District People's Court, demanding compensation of 740,000 yuan (US$90,000) from them.

The verdict is yet to come. But Teng Yongyi doesn't harbor much hope.

Neither Wang Haitao nor Wang Peng has paid a penny to the victims since the accident, according to Teng Yongjun, Teng Yongyi's younger brother.

Both Wang Haitao and Wang Peng claim they can't afford to pay the compensation.

"We are sorry for what happened to Teng's family, but we really cannot afford to pay any compensation, since my family has only the 400-yuan (US$48) per month pension of my husband to live on," said He Yuzhen, Wang Haitao's mother.

The second defendant in the case, Wang Peng, claims the automobile was purchased on instalment, and he has not paid off the loan yet and therefore has no money to pay compensation.

And the loan agreement on the car states that, before the total loan on the car is paid off, the bank has first claim on the car, and no one else is entitled to auction or sell the car to pay compensation to the victims.

Teng Yongyi then thought of seeking compensation from the insurance company that provided insurance for Wang Peng's car.

According to China's Law on Road Traffic Safety, owners of automobiles are obliged to buy compulsory third-party insurance to guarantee payment of compensation to third-party victims in the case of traffic accidents.

However, the response from the People's Insurance Company of China Beijing Branch, which provided insurance for Wang Peng's car, also frustrated Teng Yongyi.

"Since traffic police authorities have classed the accident as hit-and-run, we are exempted from the responsibility for paying compensations in accordance with insurance regulations," said an official surnamed Liu with the insurance company.

According to the law, in cases where drivers have not purchased compulsory third-party insurance or have fled the scene of an accident, resultant medical expenses should first be borne by local emergency welfare relief funds for road traffic accidents. Emergency welfare relief fund organizations are then entitled to seek repayment from the responsible parties.

Emergency welfare relief funds for road traffic accident might be the last slim of hope for Teng Yongyi to save his granddaughter.

Sources from Beijing traffic management department say that, since the rules and regulations of the new Law on Road Traffic Safety are still being worked out, funding for the emergency welfare relief fund as well as its management and supervision has yet to be worked out.

But they gave assurance that such regulations are expected to be unveiled in August or September.

It is an improvement to set up an emergency welfare relief fund for road traffic accidents, since cases like Teng's have been becoming more common in recent years. This has also become a headache for his hospital, said Li Libing, president of Beijing 999 Emergency Centre. Victims from traffic accidents are often left in hospitals with no funds to cover the treatment they have received or to cover further treatment.

The establishment of the fund will help victims of traffic accidents like Teng's family, he said.

But he urged government departments to map out the implementation rules as soon as possible so that people like Teng and his granddaughter can be properly cared for.

(China Daily June 4, 2004)