When Li Boya, an intern with the railway police, tried to stop a middle-aged man from jumping onto the rails as a train approached, his life changed forever.

Both of the 20-year-old's legs were crushed as he heroically tried to save the man in Changli county, North China's Hebei province, on July 9.

Li Song, Li's father, who runs a village clinic in Henan province, said on Tuesday that his son has undergone several operations and remains hospitalized in Qinhuangdao in Hebei. The family will have to take out a loan to pay the expensive medical fees without an official subsidy, he said.