Foundation offers facilities and training to help save newborn lives

When a newborn girl came down with jaundice in rural Guizhou , her chances of survival would normally have been bleak. The condition is easily treatable in modern hospitals, but many rural mainland hospitals lack the equipment and skills.

Even if the facilities are available, many families are not able to afford the medical fees and are forced to give up on treatment.

However, the Zhan family's baby, who was born in March last year, was lucky. She was rescued by a neonatal care unit (NCU) set up by the Children's Medical Foundation at the Guiyang Maternal and Children's Hospital.

The foundation has also provided training for doctors and nurses to handle conditions such as jaundice, as well as breathing difficulties, complications from premature birth, and infections - all preventable causes of death in newborns. It also provided financial assistance to the Zhan family. The baby girl recovered after a week in hospital.

Jaundice occurs when a baby's blood has high levels of bilirubin, an orange-yellow substance that the body creates when it renews red blood cells. Very high levels of bilirubin can damage the brain.

"One of my children had jaundice," Kristi McCombe, the foundation's director of fundraising, said. "You'd never imagine that it would be life-threatening."

Babies in rural mainland areas are six times less likely to survive these treatable illnesses than those born in Hong Kong.