Imagine the desperation.

A friend more than 1,600 kilometers away, who speaks no English and whose address and other contact information I do not have, posts on WeChat, late at night, a photo showing that she is committing suicide.

I had to decide, and quickly, what to do to help this young woman whom I have not met in person.

Never has my lack of language skills been more agonizing than in the three hours it took to save my friend Ping, with the help of another friend and dedicated police officers stretching from Beijing to Ya'an, Sichuan province.

Caught up in an emotional maelstrom - she was widowed several years ago and has a toddler son, and her recent boyfriend conned her out of her entire savings of 130,000 yuan ($19,000) - Ping, 28, did the unthinkable, something she now admits was foolish: She slashed her wrist, deeply (this was no mere cry for help), and settled in, alone in her home, to await the end.

I happened to be scrolling through WeChat at about 1:45 am, before retiring for the night, when I saw the gruesome photo, posted half an hour earlier. She followed up with a series of recent selfies, a heart-wrenching retrospective in which she noted, "I came to this world."

My next few messages to Ping went unanswered, but eventually she said she wanted to "leave this world" and confirmed that she had hurt herself.

Then she went silent.

Though I cannot speak Mandarin, I knew I had to somehow contact police and get help. But where, exactly, was my friend?

I phoned and awoke my friend Sunny, who works at CCTV. Although she speaks little English, I was able to quickly convey, using WeChat and translation software, the urgency of the situation. She began working the phones and relaying messages between police and myself.

Did I know Ping's address? No. Did I know her other friends? No.

Her WeChat ID, linked to her phone number, was our only lead.

As I scrolled desperately through earlier messages, I found that she lived in or near Baoxing county, Sichuan province. But I found no other clues to her whereabouts or friends.

Then, in answer to a special prayer in those grim hours, I discovered her earlier posting of a conversation with a friend whose user ID included his phone number.

I relayed this to police, who contacted the friend and set in motion a frantic rescue effort. Ping was located, unconscious and hanging on to life, and rushed to a hospital.

I am reminded of a comment my former wife once made, derisively, about the social site Facebook. "Those aren't real friends," she told me. "They don't care about you."

Yet, on that fateful night, many people, mostly strangers, formed a chain of caring that reached across China to save one life in a land of nearly 1.4 billion souls.

The chain, notably, was linked by smartphones and social apps - offering a beacon of hope that technology can deepen, rather than blunt, our emotional bonds.

Contact the writer at jameshealy@chinadaily.com.cn