Submitted by Margaret Whitehead, Director of our Children’s Medical Escort Progra
One fateful night, the blanket 11 year old Wushuang was sleeping in caught fire from a nearby space heater. Her entire house was quickly engulfed in flames!
Her father escaped, but Wushuang was critically burned over 75% of her body. Sadly, her mother perished in the fire.
Wushuang lay near death on a respirator in a China hospital for weeks. Finally, she received her passport and visa to travel to the US for extensive treatment donated by the Shriner’s. On May 30, 2008, Wushuang was brought by ambulance from her home city to Shanghai airport. There she met Sandy Clevenger, a Boston FA and an RN volunteer with AAI’s Children’s Medical Escort Program.
Sandy escorted Wushuang from Shanghai to Chicago O’Hare and then rode with her in an ambulance on the 7 hour drive to the Shriner’s hospital in Cincinnati. . Wushuang was in intense pain and discomfort during the long flight to Ohare, periodically crying for her mother, not understanding why she was not with her. Finally, she asked a Chinese flight attendant if her mother was even alive. She said she felt in her heart that she had died although no one had told her. It was heart-breaking.
Upon arrival at Ohare they were to connect to a smaller commuter jet to Cincinnati. Sadly, it was too painful for Wushuang to sit up on this flight so arrangements were made for an ambulance to take her to Cincinnati. Sandy rode with her through the night in the ambulance, never leaving her side until Wushuang was transferred to the care of the Shriners over 7 hours later.
One year later, after extensive treatment involving several surgeries, Wushuang, with Sandy again accompanying her, returned to China where she would have a few months to rest and heal before the next round of surgeries. For Sandy, this trip was a rewarding experience as she was greeted in Atlanta by a happy, smiling Wushuang, walking and conversing in English. In Sandy’s own words, “What a difference from a year ago when she was wrapped in bandages, unable to sit and agonized with pain. Wushuang has grown from a child who hid behind the brim of her hat so children could not stare at her scarred face to a self-assured and well poised young lady with an inner beauty that somehow masks her disfigurements.”
This trip was just the first of many round trips between her home in China and Cincinnati Shriners, which is now located in Dayton, OH.
After her initial stay at Shriners, she lived with several loving, caring families, all affiliated with Everyone’s Child International, located in Batesville, IN as she completed elementary and high school. All of them were very special to her and treated her as their own. Everything they invested in her at such a terrible and hopeless time in her life is now paying huge dividends.
When she graduated high school, Wushuang requested that her graduation party be held at Shriners so the doctors, nurses, and other staff could attend. Wushuang once said that Shriners took care of her from age 11 and that is where she “learned her first English words and manners”. Human compassion is the root of the Shriners program and it shows in Wushuang. She has had over 25 surgeries there, many during school breaks.
During high school, Wu, as she is now called, visited and fell in love with Marian University in Indianapolis. She applied there and was accepted, receiving generous scholarships during her four years of study there. She worked hard and graduated in May with a BS in Biology from Marian and BS in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University through the IUPUI program, both with summa cum laude honors. At Marian she was an ambassador, aide, tutor, and teaching assistant. Additionally, she received an undergrad research grant, an outstanding student award and at IUPUI top 100 student award. She was also in the honor society for both math and science and also engineering.
Wu interned at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis last summer and this turned into a permanent job offer which she has accepted. She is beyond thrilled to now have her first real apartment and will begin her new position at Lilly at the end of July.
Wu, we are all so grateful that you touched our lives as we share in your excitement with your many accomplishments. But knowing just how critically ill you were when you first came to the US and knowing all that you have had to overcome simply by sheer determination, we realize now that you are destined to fulfill your dreams – dreams that no one would have thought possible 13 years ago. You are our hero.
