Given the demanding situation, the doctors in the PICU decided to apply ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), an advanced technique of providing cardiac and respiratory support, to the boy.

PICU at the Changzhou Children's Hospital did not have the equipment to perform ECMO so they contacted their counterpart at Children’s Hospital of Fudan University in Shanghai, and asked to borrow the ECMO machine.

At around 1:30 pm, a transport team bringing the machine set out from Shanghai. Just 20 minutes or so later, the boy's condition was deteriorating rapidly.

His blood pressure decreased to such an extent that it could not be detected. Cardiac arrest and breathlessness frequently reemerged. It would take over three hours for the equipment to be brought to Changzhou and no one knew whether the boy would make it through.

The boy's mother fell down in a faint when she heard the news. His father stayed rather calm and was determined to save his son.

"So long as there is a glimmer of hope, we will never give up," the father said.