Sir David Attenborough is a national treasure, it’s not an exaggeration to say the nation’s love for the man is the only thing holding us together in 2017.
But the love for all things Attenborough doesn’t stop at our shores, oh no. His soothing and informative voice reaches even the most exotic of places.
Planet Earth II is helping a 10-year-old Chinese boy make an incredible recovery after the boy’s father hacked at him 76 times with a meat cleaver.
The child survived an eight-hour surgery and subsequent recovery, and is slowly regaining use of his fingers. Sir David’s nature show is reportedly ‘helping him through the pain’.
The boy, from Hangzhou City in China’s eastern Zhejiang Province had been caught up in a violent argument between his mother and father on November 12.
His dad was reportedly planning to kill him and then kill himself in a brutal murder suicide.
He hacked the boy 76 times with a meat cleaver, with 29 strikes on the head alone, causing the boy to lose consciousness.
But instead of then committing suicide, the father – surnamed Sheng – turned himself in after seeing the harm he had caused his son.
Doctors at the hospital said they haven’t seen so many stab wounds in their lives.
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Doctor Wang Gang in the trauma department at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University said:
The boy lay on the stretcher unable to move. His head, face and both hands were mangled and covered in blood.
His head and forehead had the most wounds, with some laceration as long as 15 centimetres and so deep they reached his skull.
Doctor Wang also said the boy suffered a 10 centimetre cut into the right side of his face, and had almost all of his fingers broken.
The surgery involved 50 members of staff, including doctors and nurses, to try and keep the boy from death. They said he ‘could have died at any minute’ while on the operating table.
The future of the boy’s life was hanging in the balance, but incredibly, the boy has already moved away from intensive care and is well on the road to recovery.
He’s not out of the woods yet, and he needs near constant attention, and plenty of rest, but doctors reckon they’ve found the perfect way to distract him from the traumas he experienced.
A picture taken in the boy’s room shows head nurse Wu Yuqin watching the iconic Planet Earth II iguana vs snakes scene.
The medical professionals say the show is helping the boy through the pain, and it is also helping his English.
Hangzhou City police, who still have the boy’s dad in custody, are still investigating the details of the case.
This story just goes to show how something as simple as a TV show can help people through the hardest of times.
Luckily, this brave young lad will have a long future of David Attenborough shows to love and enjoy, as the veteran filmmaker has said he plans to make shows for as long as people want them.
So that’s forever then?
