Seven poor children with laterally bent spines and other congenital spine deformities received pre-surgery checkups at Shanghai Children's Medical Center (SCMC ) yesterday.

In the next four days they will receive free operations conducted by local surgeons under the direction of medical experts from the United States.

US doctor Charles Mehlman (center) checks the spine of a boy while Shanghai Children's Medical Center's orthopedics department director Chen Bochang (left) and doctor Wang Zhigang assist yesterday. (photo: Shanghai Daily)

The six girls and one boy, aged between five and 16 years old, come from Zhejiang, Hubei, Anhui, and Sichuan provinces as well as Shanghai. The average cost of surgery is about 100,000 yuan (US$13,316), a price out of their families' reach.

Under a charity project called "Stand-Up Life" sponsored by a US-based fund, Healing the Children, and Pudong Social Development Foundation, a team of three doctors and two anesthetists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital has come to the center to oversee the surgery.

Local doctors said this was the third year running that Chinese and American doctors have operated free on children with serious spinal problems. However, this is the first year that doctors have named the project and promoted it.

"We have learned a lot through cooperation and communication with US experts from these surgeries. It's time to launch a 'train the trainer' move by promoting what we have learned to doctors from other parts of China," said Dr Chen Bochang, director of SCMC's orthopedics department.

The project consists of three parts - charity spinal surgery, educational lectures for domestic doctors, and the establishment of a medical team to give free treatment in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

(Shanghai Daily October 17, 2007)