From Xinhuanet:

December 9, 2009, in Guangzhou, a 3-year-old boy’s dead body was found abandoned in a dry ditch on the side of Guangchong highway. The boy named Zhou Hongdu was severely infected with H1N1 virus. The news caused quite a stir when once broke out. Many media continuously tracked this matter for days; Guangzhou residents showed great concerns and raised heated discussions about the incident. It has been listed as one of the top ten health news incidents in [...]]]>

From Xinhuanet:

December 9, 2009, in Guangzhou, a 3-year-old boy’s dead body was found abandoned in a dry ditch on the side of Guangchong highway. The boy named Zhou Hongdu was severely infected with H1N1 virus. The news caused quite a stir when once broke out. Many media continuously tracked this matter for days; Guangzhou residents showed great concerns and raised heated discussions about the incident. It has been listed as one of the top ten health news incidents in 2009. The incident resulted in many “questions” which still had no answers to until this day, some netizens called it Guangzhou’s “number 1 mystery” in 2009. Yesterday, Guangzhou health and public security departments issued written statements of the incident investigation. Health department said, the hospital’s treatment was effective, and the discharging was in compliance with the law and regulation; however this does not mean their work is without flaws. Public security department said, “There has not been evidence for suspecting relevant parties of any crime”.

Hongdu was abandoned in a ditch for over a month. Was the child still alive when leaving the hospital? This was media’s number one questions. Yesterday, health department stated, according to doctor’s records, custody records and hospital records etc. before the child left the hospital, he was still in the intensive care and under active treatment, when he left the hospital the baby had vital signs of being alive.

Health department stated that during the time when Hongdu was being treated at the City’s Women and Children’s Medical Center, the hospital strictly followed relevant provisions of treatment practices for infectious diseases, actively provided treatment for the patient.

The statement said “Due to the rapid development of the illness, the hospital explained the patient’s illness and treatment to the family members many times, patient’s family expressed understanding. After the patient was in the hospital for 4 days, his illness had worsened, the hospital once again explained the situation to the parents, and the parents expressed understanding. On the same day, patient’s family total of 10 people, twice requested to give up treatment and to discharge the patient from the hospital. After the hospital discouraged this decision several times but was unable to persuade the family, on the same day 8pm after the parents singed statement of willingly being discharged form hospital, the hospital agreed to proceed with the discharging. At 11 pm the family took Zhou Hongdu out of the hospital.”

Knowing the child was severely infected with H1N1 virus, but agreed to let him leave the hospital, is the hospital at fault? This is also one of the media report’s focuses.

In regard to this, the Guangzhou municipal health department stated in the statement “The hospital’s treatment was active and effective.” The health department determined the discharging was in compliance with the law and regulation because of the following 4 reason.

1. When the parents of the patient took initiative to request their son being discharged from the hospital, the hospital fulfilled its responsibility by informing the situation and pressing the family to let the patient stay. In order to respect patient’s family’s rights to make the choice when already being informed the situation, the hospital agreed to discharge the patient.

2. H1N1 is classified as category B infectious diseases so the hospital cannot mandate the isolation and treatment. Therefore the hospital cannot forcefully prevent the child to leave the hospital.

3. Before the patient left the hospital, his father signed the discharge statement, and the father clearly understood the child’s condition, which he should not leave the hospital. Knowing what would happen to the child if leaving the hospital, but he still insisted with this decision, and made the statement that anything were happen to the child after leaving the hospital will not hold the hospital responsible .

4. After the child was discharged from the hospital, the hospital reported the relevant information to the health administrative department and Baiyun District Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

At the same time, health department in the statement also admitted “consistent with the clinical and legal requirements does not mean the work is without flaws.”

The health department said “The hospital should have done better at handling this incident; should have done more detailed work of communicating with the family and to making a greater effort to retain the child. The Hospital should not rigidly stick to the regulations, should show more humanity and care, not to give up on any chance of saving a child’s life.”

The health department also said “In the future we should strengthen the publicity of the funeral management regulations, to correctly handle the dead bodies, on one hand it is the pay respect to the dead, on the other hand is to be in line with the requirement of public health to protect public interest.”

Does Hongdu’s family’s actions constitute of any crimes of abandonment or even murder? Yesterday, Guangzhou Public Security Bureau said in a written statement, “There has not been evidence for suspecting relevant parties of any crime”.

According to the briefing, December 9, 2009 morning, the police received report about a child’s dead body was found in a ditch by the side of the highway. After receiving the report, Baiyun District Public Security Bureau police quickly carried out investigations, and commissioned the Southern Forensic Medical Center to conduct an autopsy. According to the investigation results and conclusion of the comprehensive analysis, there has not been evidence for suspecting relevant parties of any crime.

Hongdu’s dead body was abandoned in a ditch under the highway, many readers cried out that it is “too cruel”. However when the reporter interviewed Hongdu’s hometown village, everyone thinks this incident is nothing new. Villager said “this just is how we normally deal with the remains of a child.” When a child dies, the villagers retain two customs when handling the corpse. 1. The directly family must not be involved in handling the body; 2. There will be no funnel. They will hire a bachelor to carry the body to the mountains, and just abandoning the body or burring in a shallow grave, no one will be held accountable.

[NetEase] November 5, 2009 afternoon, a tragedy happened in a Children’s hospital, but we the common people will not see it in today’s newspapers or from major media. It’s not that we didn’t ask for help, but there was no one helping us. Posting this in hope of friends in the society can support us, to make people responsible at the hospital step up, to make the major media step up including our beloved 110 (police) also step up.

The [...]]]>

[NetEase] November 5, 2009 afternoon, a tragedy happened in a Children’s hospital, but we the common people will not see it in today’s newspapers or from major media. It’s not that we didn’t ask for help, but there was no one helping us. Posting this in hope of friends in the society can support us, to make people responsible at the hospital step up, to make the major media step up including our beloved 110 (police) also step up.

The incident: (The victim is my friend, the following is written by my friend to his lawyer, please patiently read on)

November 1, 2009 Baby had a fever. We went to Nanjing Jiangning district hospital in the morning. The hospital arranged for Baby to be hospitalized to receive treatment. The next day Baby’s right eye was red and swollen. We informed doctors, and after the ophthalmologist consultation, the preliminary diagnosis was pulse tears swelling. They gave us erythromycin eye ointment medicine and ofloxacine. The next morning, Baby’s eye was even more red and swollen. The doctor suggested that we go to the Children’s Hospital for treatment.

November 3, 2009 we took feverish Baby to Nanjing Children’s Hospital and signed in for urgent care. Ophthalmologist Xu Zaixing (徐再兴) conducted diagnosis and blood test. Normally it takes half hour for the blood test report, but the staffs made us wait for one hour and said it needed review. We gave the report to doctor Xu, he said the report showed poor blood state, he diagnosed it as cellular tissue infection and arranged Baby to be hospitalized to receive treatment. He requested the ophthalmologist and a physician to conduct a consultation immediately, and it was also noted on the medial record.

Around 11 am, we gave the documents to the ophthalmologist and registered to stay in 14^th floor bed number 45. Sitting in front of the bed, Dr. Chen Juan (陈娟) and Dr. Feng Xiaojin (冯小津) asked about patient’s condition, but did not arrange for physician consultation. So the best time for diagnosis and treatment was missed. The doctor never came to the check on Baby after he was hospitalized. For long time no one came to check Baby’s temperature and give him IV. We repeatedly went to the front desk, but the nurse on duty told us that medicine was being made and we have to wait till afternoon. After we repeatedly hurried them, at 1:30 pm IV was finally given to Baby. From getting in the hospital to Baby passed away, no nurse ever came to measure Baby’s temperature, every time we had to go to the front desk and tell the nurse Baby’s temperature. During this period there was no doctor and nurse came to ask Baby’s condition.

Close to noon, the doctor told us to take Baby for an eye CT, and said will take appropriate treatment action according to the result. At 2 pm we gave the result to the doctor, she simply said there is no major problem, and said she was getting off work, but she gave our information to the night shift doctor. She did not take appropriate treatment action after the CT result like she said she would. Then my wife asked about Baby’s eye inflammation situation. She said it’s nothing, it needed to slowly disinfect and couldn’t tell the effectiveness in one day, it would take couple days. Wife asked the doctor base on her clinical experience how serious Baby’s condition was. She said that this was just inflammation, should be not a big issue so my wife was not as worried as before. At 6 pm, I notice Baby’s eye was more swollen and even his face was swollen. We went to the office of the night shift doctor Mao Xiaojun (毛晓君) , at the time he was playing games. I said Baby’s condition was much worse than before and asked him to go take a look. He said he was the doctor on duty, not the doctor in charge of the beds; he was unclear on Baby’s condition. He said to wait till doctor in charge of the beds to come in the next day. My wife said, are you an ophthalmologist? He said yes. My wife said during the day doctor in charge gave us information to give to him, and if anything happened with the baby we could directly contact the night shift doctor. Then my wife said that we beg him to go take a look, at this time he was very reluctant but followed us to the room. He went in front of Baby and took only one look and said, it was nothing, let’s wait for tomorrow.

Baby has been crying the entire time, till 1 30 am in the morning Baby cried even harder and his face was even more swollen. My mom and wife took the baby to find the doctor, begging the doctor on duty Dr. Mao Xiaojun to take look at Baby’s condition, and stressed that Baby’s condition was getting more and more serious, but he refused. In the end we begged him to clean Baby’s eye and apply eye drops, because we didn’t dare to touch Baby’s red and swollen eye. After my wife’s pleating and begging, Dr. Mao Xiaojun unwillingly took some cotton q-tips cleaned Baby’s eye. In the end he non-stop complained angrily “You people, woke me up at night, I don’t need sleep? It’s so funny, woke me up to clean your baby’s eye.” At the time my mom was so angry and about to cry, but she had to endure because we were asking for his help. Later Baby’s crying turned into week groans. My mom once again carried Baby out to ask the doctor to take measures, but the doctor refused.

After about 10 minutes I carried Baby to beg the doctor and told him there was serious inflammation on Baby’s brain, and may have gotten worse. But Dr. Mao’s answer was “what’s up with you, your mom was just here. We gave him IV during the day to reduce inflammation, and reducing inflammation doesn’t only take one day, wait for doctor in charge come in tomorrow.” I could only carry Baby back to the room, Baby was still groaning. My mom, my wife and I took turns to hold the baby, finally my wife couldn’t take it anymore said her heart was bleeding. She went to the front desk and told the nurse everything. But nurse said the same thing, wait till tomorrow. My wife asked the nurse if she could get a doctor to take a look. Nurse said usually doctor on duty sleeps, today he was woken up many times, was very angry. Not for long, a couple took a child to the urgent care. Dr Mao appeared for couple of minutes. He saw my wife and glared at her then went back to his room to sleep. My wife continued to ask the nurse to find an internal medicine doctor to take a look. Nurse said internal medicine doctor also was on duty, he would not care about us. My wife could only sit on the bench next to the nurse waiting for doctor or nurse’s compassion. After hours of anxious waiting we did not get their sympathy.

At 5 am in the morning baby didn’t even have strength to groan, finally breathing painfully, and suddenly his breathing was weaker and weaker. My mom holding the baby and I rushed out of the room and cried out for help. My wife also called out loudly and knocked on doctors doors. Two doctors came out, one of them said baby was registered with ophthalmologist and then she turned around, closed the door and continued to sleep. My wife knocking their doors, kneeling in front of the door begged them to call the hospital’s emergency number. But the answer she got was that she is not an eye doctor but a doctor of facial features, this matter did not concern her. My wife kneeled in front of the door called for help loudly. When other patients’ family on the same floor heard us and came out, under pressures from people, she reluctantly placed a few calls. 7 to 8 minutes later emergency doctors came to rescue, but at that time Baby was not breathing anymore, finally rescue failed. Just like that, our baby left us, leaving us with deep pain and endless memory. The cause of this was just a fever with swollen eye. Just like that, heartless irresponsible doctors and nurses killed my lovely Baby step by step when he was only 5 months into his journey of life.

(Here are a few pictures at that time when security guards came to beat us. Security guards came and asked us if we were family members, then they beat us. We took some pictures in panic; also hope bystanders at the scene provide pictures and video. I remember there were angry bystanders. Security guard asked “who are you?” “We see injustice!” We are grateful to those cared about us.) Hoping for everyone’s support, thank you!

Yesterday, we did not get any answers but only more pain. In the beginning looked like an ordinary fever with swollen eye, but just like that heartless irresponsible doctors and nurses killed my lovely Baby step by step when he was only 5 months into his journey of life. How sad is that?

Ten months to conceive the baby, a perfect family for 6 month was ended in such a hurry. Is this a tragedy on earth? It was not Baby’s fault, not parents’ fault, only because no one helped us in a few hours that night? A tiny life was lost, bringing family members the painful memories forever.

Respectable doctors just stood there, as if nothing happened.  I don’t know if they are used to this scene at their hospital.  They were even laughing.  Our baby just passed away, is it like not a big deal?

Security guard, go easy please, we are all injured

red: security that beat us. blue: our beloved police stops us from fighting and speaks for the hospital

Security that beat us

A fresh life, just like this wasted

Our baby

Now we are helpless. There is no answer from the hospital, only fierce assaults; no media attention, only our word of mouth. We have no choice, only relying on the internet and netizens’ power, help us, for the poor tiny life, for us your foreign friends, I beg you, and thank you!

Child was gone just like that. He could have saved him, but no, only because of playing games and sleeping, the doctor wasted time. Who wouldn’t go ask for justice? This doctor not only has no ethics as a doctor, but also has no moral. Even more tragic is he doesn’t even have the basic human dignity. Of course, she was not the only one who is heartless. They include those in Nanjing Children’s Hospital administration building, doctors, security guards and even including the police stationed at the hospital.

In order to ask for justice, child’s parents accompanied by friends and relatives gathered in Children’s Hospital to find the president and the doctor on duty. Of course after the incident they would not come out to public. So people put up banner in front of the hospital said “Children’s Hospital treats human life like dirt” hoping for the public and media’s attention. The hospital’s image and reputation was in jeopardy, the leaders of the hospital had to do something, therefore 20 security guards showed up. Can they beat us in front of everyone? Of course not. They pretended that the hospital would talk to us. An “undercover” suggested us to go upstairs to talk to the hospital leaders. In fact this was our goal in the first place, to talk to the hospital to sort things out.

However we were tricked by hospital’s setup. A premeditated beating was waiting for us. Hospital president’s office was empty. We sat there and waiting, but “white coats” were nowhere to be found, instead group of hospital security guards and “undercover” in plain cloth (hooligans) appeared. They threw us out of the office with violence, beating us in the elevator lobby. We called 110 and the police came to ask for information. (However they were police stationed at the hospital) When the hooligans pushed us (2 women) on the floor, they pretended that they didn’t see. When our wrists were held by the hooligans only one police stopped them and told them not to beat us, the other police and doctors just stood there and watched. Men and women, old and young all were pushed out of the administration building. The most disappointing was mother called up various television and newspaper media in the city, they all said “we already knew” but no one interviewed us. Not sure what Children’s Hospital has done behind the scenes? Everyone knew every well.