Chinese couple give birth to three more sons to find lifesaving transplant match for sick first-born daughter

A Chinese couple have given birth to three sons in the past four years to find a match for a lifesaving blood transplant for their daughter, mainland media reports.

The third son born to the couple in Shenzhen has finally proved to be the one and the successful surgery has now taken place, the news portal Gd.qq.com reported.

Their daughter, Zhuang Qian Qian, who had been living on blood transfusion, received a cord blood transplant – a sample of blood that is free of the disease, taken from her newborn brother’s umbilical cord – at Shenzhen Children’s Hospital in June, the website reported.

The umbilical cord had been safely stored, since the third son’s birth in 2014, until the surgery could be carried out.

The couple say they spent 210,000 yuan (HK$232,000) on the transplant for their daughter, who was born in 2009 with thalassaemia, a rare blood disease that doctors said could be cured only by a bone marrow or cord blood transplant.