The 2-year-old Chinese girl who was hit thrice by two vans last week and ignored by 18 passers-by and cyclists died Friday. The spokesman of the military hospital where Yueyue was confined said she died of systemic organ failure.

The video of the girl's accident had more than a million hits.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/chinese-toddler-left-bloody-hit-run-dies-020238365.html

The incident sparked international outrage over the apathy of the Chinese, which was blamed on the focus on materialism in the country. It led not only to calls for changes in China's laws but also to national soul-searching over moral decline amid economic progress.

Doctors had given Yueyue little chance of survival since she was already brain-dead and in a coma for a week.

Despite the tragedy, the incident also showed the good side of some Chinese, including the 57-year-old rag collector who helped Yueyue and hundreds of Chinese children who broke their piggybanks to contribute to a fund to pay for the toddler's medical expenses. As of Friday, the fund reached $42,300 (270,100.40 yuan).

With Yueyue gone, whatever is left of the funds the girl's father deposited in a bank account will be used to help other children in similar circumstances.

News of Yueyue's death spread fast through the Internet and led to posting of messages which would surely soothe the hearts of the girl's grieving parents, who are migrant workers.

"Farewell to little Yueyue. There are no cars in heaven," The Sydney Morning Herald quoted one microblogger.

"Yueyue was consumed for a week by the fake kindness of netizens. ... All the wishes are fake and only the 18 passers-by are real. Farewell, and do not be born again in China in your next life," another sarcastic blogger posted in Weibo.

Beyond blaming the 18 pedestrians, some bloggers said it was a social problem since many people have become mere passers-by in other people's lives.

"What after all prompted such a sad phenomenon? Officials? The rich? Or is it our own cold-heartedness?" Huadong University professor of religion Li Xiangping asked.

Other observers said indifference is a malady worldwide, particularly in highly urbanized areas.

"Rapid urbanisation not only affects China or Foshan, but anywhere in the world where you have a lot of high-rise buildings, where there is high population density, then the relationship with the neighbors, and with each other is affected," AP quoted Yao Yue, a psychologist and director of a telephone helpline for distressed Beijing residents.

Yueyue placed Foshan on the world map as a city of apathy and uncaring residents. But with the outpouring of rage and calls for radical changes in societal and personal values, the girl's death may finally bring out more Good Samaritans willing to help strangers, be they seniors or 2-year-old migrant kids wandering in an unknown street and at the risk of being sideswiped by rushing vehicles.

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