Chen Xianmei, Woman Who Helped Run-Over Chinese Toddler, Praised (GRAPHIC VIDEO)

The mother of a child who was run over in a hit-and-run in China has come to the defense of the woman who helped her toddler.

ABC News reports that 57-year-old Chen Xianmei moved the 2-year-old girl Yue Yue out of the road and called for help after the girl was hit by vehicles in Foshan, Guangdong province. Eighteen pedestrians and cyclists passed by the little girl before she was helped by Xianmei, ABC reports.

UPDATE: The AP reports that Yue Yue has died.

Below is original story:

Xianmei has been criticized by many in China who say she only helped Yue Yue because she wanted publicity, according to ABC.

However, the girl's mother, who identified herself as Qu, refutes those claims.

"[Xianmei] is really kind, not the type of person who enjoys publicity," Qu told China Daily. "I don't have enough words to thank her with."

The Telegraph posits that pedestrians may have been afraid to help Yue Yue because of China's "compensation culture." The paper refers to a 2006 judgement in which a person who helped a woman get to a hospital was "wrongly ordered to pay her compensation." According to the Associated Press, "many commentators have also pointed to China's lack of legal protections, such as a 'Good Samaritan' law that would protect people from lawsuits if they try to help others in distress."

Comments

[phazeroftruth]

08:18 AM on 10/24/2011

"Xianmei has been criticized by many in China who say she only helped Yue Yue because she wanted publicity, according to ABC."

Chinese reaction: "You showed yourself to be human. Pathetic!"

[dclintn648]

02:38 PM on 10/23/2011

Anyone who would walk past an injured child is truly a disgusting, despicable piece of garbage. There is absolutely NO EXCUSE that would make it justifiable!

[Paul Salyers]

05:06 PM on 10/21/2011

It's not as graphic as you might think Caran. I doubt the HuffPost would post a full video of a child being run over twice. Cuts out before impact. Appropriate editing imo (probably done by the Chinese as this looks like only parts of the security video were released).

[karvictho]

03:26 PM on 10/23/2011

The HuffPost video has cut aways but the whole video is elsewhere on the net.... and it is really horrific. Not just because you see the child run over the first time, and again by another van, but because of the number of people who ride or walk past and simply ignore her. In my view, they are as guilty for her death as the drivers.

But... before we throw a bunch of stones at the Chinese who don't, apparently, want to be held liable for trying to help there is a recent story about a TimeWarner employee in America (Ohio I recall) who probably died at work because her manager stopped a co-worker from administering cpr, because the manager wanted to protect TimeWarner from any potential lawsuits which may have arisen had the co-worker not helped the dying worker properly. This even though the state where it happened, Ohio, has a good samaritan law which would absolve the samaritan of wrongdoing in such cases.

The moral of both stories is that money is worth more than a human life --- both in America and China.

[RonQSmith]

04:24 PM on 10/21/2011

How can they ask who should be to blame? It is brutally obvious. The parents are the first line of defense. If they are too busy working it may be because the people in China are slave labor treated and engineered to suck every last job out of the USA as an act of economic war. They peg the yuan to the dollar artificially trying to bring more and more jobs into China and work their people more and more until they are reduced to slave labor working to the point that their humanity is GONE.

[Mrs S2004]

02:42 AM on 10/24/2011

Toddlers in every corner of the world, throughout time, have wandered off. It happens in the blink of an eye, and often when the parents think the child is napping, or engaged in play, or are unaware the toddler can now climb out of the crib, or unlatch the gate. It is cruel and unfair to blame the parents without cause.

[Caran Crawford]

01:18 PM on 10/21/2011

I did not watch this. I can't stand to, but I am commenting that it is not necessary to post this graphic video--out of respect. we get the gist of the story without having to see it.

[ekw1123]

12:53 PM on 10/21/2011

how did the child get there in the first place? why aren't people questioning the mother?

[Red The Grey]

07:40 PM on 10/24/2011

Apparently, the mother was hanging out clothes and the father was at work in their hardware store. (From what I heard)