Wu Maoqing kept saying "thank you" in a low voice to four nurses on Monday who helped move him from one side of his hospital bed to the other.

"We have to move him from time to time to prevent him from developing pressure sores," said head nurse Gong Hongyu.

Wu, 45, a migrant worker from Ya'an, Sichuan province, was working at a construction site in Kangding and was hit by rocks falling from mountains when a magnitude-6.3 earthquake hit Tagong township on Saturday afternoon.