Retired Teacher Dies 3 Weeks After Release on Medical Parole

A retired teacher from Taiping Town died three weeks after she was released on medical parole.

Ms. Xu Huixian, 71, was serving 3.5 years for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. She was reduced to skin and bones within less than one year of her admission to Gansu Province Women’s Prison.

By May of this year, the retired teacher was in critical condition and had nose bleeding non-stop. The prison instructed her family to apply for medical parole, but reversed its decision two weeks later when the family was finally able to gather all the required paperwork. According to the prison, Ms. Xu’s condition “had stabilized.”

Ms. Xu’s family returned to the prison one week later, only to discover she was incoherent and disoriented. They immediately requested her medical parole, but was told that she had to be in critical condition to qualify.

Two days later, the prison notified Ms. Xu’s family to get ready for her release because its doctors had just issued a critical condition notice.

An ambulance, escorted by a police car, dropped Ms. Xu off at Zhenyuan Town Political and Legal Affairs Committee in the wee hours of June 18th. Her family saw that she was on oxygen and begged the prison guards not to leave. The guards drove her to a local hospital after having the family pay them 1,500 yuan (£170) first.

Ms. Xu remained in critical condition at the hospital, and appeared agitated whenever she was awake. Her family suspects she had been given drugs at the prison that might have damaged her central nervous system.

She passed away on July 8th, at the age of 71.