12 Years Later, Shandong Woman Still Suffers from Complications of Toxic Injection Received at a Labour Camp

The day before her scheduled release from the labour camp in 2002, Ms. Gu Jing, a then-60-year-old woman jailed for her faith in Falun Gong, was given a toxic injection likely intended to take her life. The camp authorities were so sure of her eventual fate that they reported her “death” prematurely to the local police department soon afterwards.

Ms. Gu's daughter was totally confused the next day, when she received a visit from a friend who came to comfort her regarding her mother's “passing.” This friend had learned some insider information from a relative who worked at the police department, and mistakenly thought that her mother indeed had died from the injection. This was an obvious shock to Ms. Gu's daughter, who had not been contacted by the police station.

Though Ms. Gu survived the potentially lethal injection, she still suffers from the lingering complications 12 years later. She has to live with dizziness, high blood pressure and a constant feeling of heaviness in her head.

Arrested and Tortured

Ms. Gu is from Taian, Shandong Province. She went to Beijing in October 1999 to seek the right to practise Falun Gong, but she was arrested as soon as she arrived. She was held in the Yingsheng Police Station for a dozen days, followed by being detained in the Taian Lock-up Centre and Taian Detention Centre.

In March 2000, Ms. Gu was taken to Shandong Province Second Women's Labour Camp for a two-year term. She was deprived of sleep and tortured mentally while there. Her blood pressure soon reached above 280. She felt dizzy and sometimes got confused. She also coughed badly and sometimes vomited blood. Due to Ms. Gu's alarming symptoms, the inmates worried about the possibility of contagious disease and requested to have her transferred.

Potentially Lethal Injection and Long-Term Effects

The labour camp authorities eventually decided to put Ms. Gu on medical parole with another Falun Gong practitioner, Ms. Liu Chunxiang. Just one day prior to her release, Han Xing, a team leader of the guards, took both Falun Gong practitioners to the labour camp infirmary and forcibly gave them injections.

Ms. Gu soon felt her heart tightening, and a terrible pain in her abdomen. It was difficult for her to breathe. She kept vomiting and suffered from ongoing diarrhea.

A few days later, the labour camp guards dropped Ms. Gu off at the Yingsheng Police Station in Taian at around 9 p.m. without notifying anybody. An on-duty police officer notified her family, and she was then taken home.

Ms. Gu continued to practise Falun Gong at home. Although she managed to survive the injection, she is still suffering from aftereffects more than a decade later.