A SHENZHEN medical team recently helped treat a 2-year-old boy with hand deformities from Jieyang City in southeastern Guangdong Province, according to Thursday’s Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

The boy, identified as Chenchen, was born with a flipper-like right hand with all five fingers stuck together. The hand is also much smaller than his normal-sized left hand. “Chenchen suffers from congenital hand deformity,” said Zhuang Yongqing, a doctor with Shenzhen People’s Hospital who is in charge of Chenchen’s treatment.

According to Chenchen’s mother, the boy could hardly pick up a toy with his deformed right hand. Chenchen’s mother had been looking for medical treatment for the boy’s deformed hand at local hospitals, but they didn’t offer a treatment that could help Chenchen.

Zhuang and his medical treatment gave hope to Chenchen and his family after they joined a recent campaign organized by the Shenzhen city government that offers local medical resources in rural areas.

Zhuang explained that Chenchen’s situation was a rare case, as most patients with hand deformities only have two or three fingers stuck together, while all five of his fingers were unseparated.

The doctor said that two surgeries would be needed to treat the boy’s deformity. The first step was to separate the boy’s right thumb from his index finger and the middle finger from the ring finger, while the second surgery would separate the index finger from the middle finger and the ring finger from the little finger.

Chenchen has already undertaken the first surgery in Shenzhen and is waiting for the second surgery, which is scheduled for after the Spring Festival. (Zhang Qian)