A 7-YEAR-OLD girl is in a coma at Shenzhen People’s Hospital, suffering from a severe brain injury after being beaten by her mother, Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

    The mother, 25, going by the alias of Huang Huiyun, brought her child to the hospital Friday. The doctors performed neurological surgery on the girl, known as Yin, and said she is suffering from a severe brain injury.

    “The child can’t breathe on her own and has little chance of survival,” said Chen Youlian, a doctor working in the ICU department of the hospital.

    The hospital called the police after Huang admitted she had hit her child, even though she initially claimed the girl accidentally fell down and injured herself.

    Huang admitted to the police that she bumped Yin’s head on the floor several times, and used a mop to beat her because she had been stealing money from home. Huang was 18 and unmarried when she gave birth to Yin, and the father left them right after Yin’s birth.

    Huang was emotional when she learnt her child had little chance of survival. Police officers allowed Huang to stay at the hospital after an interrogation but kept a watch on her in case she hurt herself.

    Yin was transferred to the ICU after the surgery. Doctor Chen said one of Yin’s pupils was constricted, and the other was recovering. Yin had regained normal breathing. “In general, we are more hopeful about her survival than we were yesterday,” said Chen.

    Chen also added that although Yin’s vital signs were stable, she was still in a coma and had severe brain swelling. “It was the most serious beating I have seen in my career,” said Chen, adding that similar injuries were usually the result of car accidents, or being dropped from great heights.

    In addition to several new bruises, doctors also found some other old ones on Yin’s legs, possibly caused by pinching.

    The hospital will arrange CT and other examinations for Yin to evaluate her condition for signs of cerebral hemorrhages, and decide what operations to perform on her, such as dehydration treatment.

    “There may possibly be after-effects and complications,” said Chen. “The damage to the brain was so severe that she might have trouble with language, thinking, movement and judgment, even after a successful recovery.”

    (Zhang Yang, Yin Ran)