'Miracle girl' Yiyi fights back after developing fever

The orphaned toddler who was pulled alive from the Wenzhou bullet train crash hours after rescue efforts were officially abandoned has returned to a stable condition after developing a fever over the weekend.

Xiang Weiyi - better known by her nickname 'Yiyi' - remained in isolation in intensive care yesterday, but her temperature had returned to normal, doctors said.

The 2 1/2-year-old girl's parents were among at least 40 people who died in the July 23 crash.

Yiyi was unexpectedly found alive in a badly-compressed carriage 21 hours after a high-speed train ploughed into the back of another on a viaduct near Wenzhou.

She suffered extensive internal injuries and her left leg was badly crushed. Doctors initially feared it may have to be amputated.

The search for survivors had been called off at least 15 hours earlier, prompting a railways official to brand Yiyi's survival 'a miracle'.

But it also gave rise to claims that the decision to call off the search was made too hastily.

A spokesman for the Wenzhou Medical School-affiliated Yuying Children's Hospital, where Yiyi is being treated, said that although operations to remove gangrenous tissue had saved her injured leg from amputation, there had since been complications.

'Yiyi began to develop a mild fever at the end of last week,' he said.

But she responded well to treatment at the weekend and Yiyi was placed in isolation to prevent further infection.

The funeral of Yiyi's father, Xiang Yuan, and mother, Shi Lihong, took place last Thursday.