Chinese Boy, 3, Released After 1st Operation

Shao-han Deng, the 3-year-old boy who came from a remote province of China for an operation to save his life, was released from UCLA’s Children’s Hospital on Wednesday after successfully pulling through the first of what could be several surgeries to repair his damaged heart.

“He’s basically doing everything a 3-year-old should . . . Eating, playing laughing,” said hospital spokeswoman Elaine Schmidt. “Everything has gone really well.”

Shao-Shao, as he is affectionately known by his family and hospital staff, underwent surgery earlier this month to correct a related lung condition that had placed pressure on his fragile heart.

Shao-Shao attended a press conference shortly after his 1 p.m. release, where at times he cried, fidgeted and smiled.

His condition will be evaluated for the next several months before doctors perform surgery to repair a congenital heart defect that left the boy with only one ventricle--a chamber within the heart that pumps oxygenated blood throughout the body. A normal heart has two ventricles.

The boy and his family had been staying at the home of Steven Tzeng, a Simi Valley restaurateur, while the boy was recuperating.

The family has since relocated to West Los Angeles to be closer to the hospital and will continue staying in the United States until the operations are completed.

The boy’s plight gained international attention after his desperate father, Yongxin Deng, took to the Internet to find help for his boy, for whom Chinese doctors said they could do little. As word spread of the child’s plight, donations and offers of assistance came in, as did an offer by the hospital to try to save the boy’s life through surgery.