An 8-year-old boy, Zhou Ziyun, saved his 2-year-old sister, who was buried in the rubble, after two hours of digging with his bare hands in Lushan county of Sichuan province, which was hit hard by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake, China News reported Wednesday.

The boy had a nail from his right middle finger removed and the dead tissue on his right index finger cleaned during surgery on Tuesday evening. His nail had been infected and skin torn by the digging, and his left hand was injured by a falling wooden door.

The boy barely uttered a sound while doctors were cleaning his wounds. "Adults may not be able to bear the pain if they had the same cuts like Zhou's," one doctor treating the boy said.

Zhou said he can barely feel the pain because he missed his little sister badly, who is being treated at another hospital. "I will go see her as soon as my hands recover," he said.