Basi, a 22-year-old giant panda, has been saved from the breakdown of high blood pressure in this capital of east China's Fujian Province.

Born in Sichuan Province, Basi has long been a star as he visited the United States in 1987 and attended the 1990 Asian Games in Beijing, which had adopted the giant panda as its mascot. Basi also attended CCTV's Spring Festival evening gala in 1991.

Basi was diagnosed with high blood pressure in March, 2001. No such case had ever been seen in a giant panda.

On July 19 this year, three days after he was relocated to a nearby mountain to avoid heat, Basi began to refuse food and show signs of restlessness. Medication did not improve the situation. On July 21, Basi began suffering major bleeding from the nose, and urgent treatment failed to stem the danger.

Two days later, Basi began bleeding again so seriously that he lost consciousness. "He was shaking all over and his breathing was slow," said one of the Fuzhou Giant Panda Research Center staff members on watch.

The Fuzhou Giant Panda Protection Association medical team went immediately to the mountain location upon receiving the information.

After stopping the bleeding, the medical experts chose transfusion without narcosis out of fear that the panda would never again gain consciousness after a long period of unconsciousness. Staff from the research center volunteered to hold Basi to prevent him from struggling.

It is a miracle for such an elderly giant panda to recover from such a disease, according to panda experts here.

The average life expectancy of the endangered species is 25 years. Currently, only about 1,000 giant pandas live in the wild in the bamboo forests of western China. More than 100 live in captivity in zoos around the world.

(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2002)