China Daily News

The mother of the two-year-old girl who was run over twice by vans and left bleeding in the middle of a narrow market street in China has praised the woman who rescued her gravely injured daughter.

“I don’t have enough words to thank her with,” the mother, who would identify herself only as Qu, said at the hospital on Monday, according to China Daily.

Chen Xianmei is the 57-year-old woman who moved Qu’s daughter Yue Yue to the side of a road and called for help in Foshan, Guangdong province, last Thursday after eighteen pedestrians and cyclists passed right by the little girl.

“I was picking up trash in the hardware market when I saw a child lying in the road. I walked up in a hurry to the girl and heard her groan. I lifted her up and saw that one of her eyes was closed, that she had tears in her eyes, and she was bleeding from her mouth, nose and the back of her head,” Chen told China Daily.

“I wanted to carry her but she was soft and collapsed immediately. I was scared to try again and so I dragged her to the side of the road and shouted for help. But nobody showed up,” Chen was quoted in Yangcheng Evening News as saying.

Meanwhile, many in China have said that she did the good deed seeking publicity. Since the incident she has received numerous interview requests, and it was reported that the civilization office of Foshan’s Nanhai district presented 10,000 yuan ($1,570) to Chen on Monday.

“Is it really so difficult to be a good person?” Chen’s daughter-in-law, who declined to state her full name, asked China Daily.

The girl’s mother echoed this sentiment, telling China Daily that this was unlikely to be Chen’s motivation. “I am truly grateful,” Que said. “She is really kind, not the type of person who enjoys publicity.”

The two-year-old girl Wang Yue (nicknamed YueYue) is in critical condition at the Guangzhou Military District General Hospital. Images of her on a respirator were in most of the Chinese press Tuesday. Despite numerous micro-blogs from YueYue’s mother about her daughter’s improving condition, including regaining sensation in her limbs, The Guangzhou Daily quoted the hospital’s head of neurosurgery as saying the girl is likely to remain in a vegetative state if she survives.

The two drivers involved in the hit-and-run are in police custody. One was arrested by police and the other turned himself in on Monday.

A security camera video of the incident has gone viral in China and ignited much heated discussion and soul-searching across the country. China’s version of Twitter, Sina Weibo, has created and organized all the comments under the hash tag “Please end the cold-heartedness.”

“I won’t judge them, Qu said of the passers-by. “Let them make their own judgment. If they are married and have children, they will know. But I bear no grudge and refuse to be disappointed by society. Many kind people have come to help.” The mother will stay by her daughter’s side while she received treatment, China Daily reported.

“I didn’t care for my child very well, and it’s my fault,” she said. “But Yue Yue can’t leave her mother and her mom won’t leave her.”

ABC News’ Karson Yiu contributed to this report