Beijing (AsiaNews) - After a long ordeal of almost four months, Bin Guo was released yesterday afternoon from the hospital in Shenzhen where he was hospitalised after a stranger gouged out his eyes in an attack in Shanxi province. Nicknamed Bin-Bin, the little boy is now six years old and "in good health". He left his toys "so that other children coming here for treatment can share" them.
Despite the physical and psychological injuries he suffered, six-year-old Bin-Bin was able to leave. During his stay, he received new implants and prosthetic eyes that allow him to keep his eyelids open but not to see.
"There were many loving people who gave him a lot of toys," said Dr Dennis Lam Shun-chiu, the doctor who operated him for free. "I'll leave the toys here so that other children coming here for treatment can share the toys,'" Lam added quoting the boy.
Bin-Bin will return to the hospital in six month time to change his prosthetic eye pieces, and learn to use a navigation device - worn on the forehead or tongue - to capture images and translate them into electronic signals for the brain.
According to the account of the tragedy, the child was taken to a camp on 24 August by a woman with a strange accent, who used an unidentified tool (perhaps a red-hot spoon) to gouge out his eyes. China's official Xinhua news agency did not mention possible motives behind the attack.
State media reports suggest that Guo Bin might have been attacked to resell his corneas on the black market. However, police said that the eyes were found at the scene of the crime and that the corneas were not removed.
The baby's father said that at the time the family "knew nothing of all this," and police blamed the attack on the child's aunt, who later committed suicide.