Parents keep abandoned child alive by feeding her mouth to mouth

Li Huanme found her daughter, Likun, sixteen years ago in the hallway of the hospital in Shanxi Province, north China, while working as a cleaner. 

Fearing the tiny baby would die, Li Huanme took Likun home and she and her husband, Zhao Yuchun, have cared for the child ever since. 

Likun has cerebral palsy, a neurological condition that affects movement and co-ordination. 

Li Huanme said: “As soon as I brought her back she had difficulties swallowing food and did not know how to eat. 

“She is different from other kids.”

They feed Likun by chewing her hot food and transferring it from their own mouth into hers – a process that takes hours.

Li Huanme explained: “If we use a spoon to feed Likun, the food will be cold and I don’t want her to only have cold food in her tummy.

“By doing it mouth to mouth it will be warm and using a spoon isn’t convenient as she spits out the food.” 

Likun eats three meals per day, each with a feeding time of around two hours. 

Her adopted father, Zhao Yuchun, spends the most time caring for Likun as Li Huanme was recently diagnosed with throat cancer. 

Zhao said: “There is no fruit blender or food processor, nothing. Every day I spend six hours just feeding her. 

“I will put the food into my mouth first and then hers.

“It takes a long time but I don’t have a choice, just persistence.” 

The couple have two older children who no longer live at home and despite the wider families love and affection for Likun, at first the couple’s decision to take her in was met with worry and opposition. 

Li Huanme’s sister said: “At first, we all said they should not take Likun in.  She cannot eat and she wets herself. We thought it would be too difficult for them.

“But Li Huame and Zhao Yuchun would not take her back. They wouldn’t agree with us.”   

Li Huame added: “Likun’s own mother had already abandoned her once. How could I do that to her? 

“I found her in February in the hospital I work in. Babies are abandoned very often here but usually someone takes them straight away. 

“Likun was there for days, maybe because she had some problems.

“It was very cold and I felt so sorry for her.  On the third day, I thought to myself, 'maybe I should bring her home?'  

“I thought she was dying and at least she would die at my home and not out in the cold alone. She was almost frozen.

“I spent two days just warming her feet and I tried my best to keep her alive.” 

Li Huame and Zhao Yuchun succeeded in reviving the cold Likun and decided to adopt her as one of their own.

But the couple are now struggling financially.

They receive no help from the government to help them care for Likun and are now so impoverished that Li Huanme’s cancer treatment has had to be halted as they can no longer afford the medical bills. 

The family has had to move into an apartment owned by a relative to help them scrape by and Zhao Yuchun has had to give up work to care for Likun and Li Huame.

Li Huame said: “This is my fate. All I could do is try my best.  As long as Likun lives one more day, I will take care of her one more day. No matter what.” 

Her husband added: “I raised this one and if I give up she will perish.

“Her biological parents gave her up once but we will never do that.”