Husband's Harrowing Story of Cover-Up Regarding Wife's Death (Photo)

Dafa practitioner Ms. He Xiuling from Yantai City, Shandong Province, was unjustly detained at a Detention Centre in Yantai City, where she was tortured by personnel from the "610 Office" and also by guards. Around 7:00 a.m. on March 11, 2004, He Xiuling passed away in hospital in Yantai City.

He Xiuling was arrested in August 2003 and was illegally sentenced to prison around the time of the Chinese New Year in February 2003. She was sent to the Nanjiao Detention Centre in Yantai City, where she persisted in her belief and was locked in a solitary room where the "610 Office" personnel and guards brutally tortured her. During her detention, He Xiuling's family asked numerous times to meet with her but never received a response.

On March 8, 2004, He Xiuling was tortured to the brink of death and was sent to Yuhuangding Hospital in Yantai City. She was not even clothed while in the hospital and one of her hands was still cuffed to the bed.

Around 5:00 p.m. March 10, Li, the head of the Zhifu District "610 Office" called He Xiuling's husband and told him to come to see his wife at the hospital. When he arrived, he saw his wife was in a terrible condition and could no longer speak. He asked to stay by her side, but his request was denied by two guards who were watching her.

Around 7:00 a.m. on March 11, Li called He Xiuling's husband again and urged him to go to the hospital. He arrived around 8:00 a.m., not knowing that He Xiuling had already passed away at 7:45 a.m.

The following is the account given by He Xiuling's husband:

Around 5:00 p.m. March 10, 2004, I received a phone call from Li, head of the Zhifu District "610 Office." He said to me, "Your wife is sick and being treated at the Zhuangqu Hospital." I asked if I was allowed to visit her. He said yes. I put down the phone and caught a ride to the hospital. I asked many hospital staff and learned my wife was in Ward 32 of the Brain Division on the sixth floor. I went there and saw two patients, both with their families by their side. I asked them about my wife and they didn't know such a person. I went back to the doctor and the doctor took me back to Ward 32 and pointed to a person and said, "Isn't that her over there?" I walked over and saw it was indeed my wife. I asked her how she felt and saw that she could not speak. One of her hands was cuffed to the bed and no one was taking care of her. I didn't know what condition she was in, and learned afterwards that she was sent to the hospital by detention centre officials on March 8 and two people from the detention centre were watching her.

The doctor's diagnosis was tuberculosis meningitis in the critical stage, and she required intensive care. I asked where she felt pain and she put her hand on her chest. I helped her sit up and she moaned in pain. She couldn't open her eyes. If the diagnosis was meningitis, why did her chest hurt? I stayed there for five or six minutes and the two people from the detention centre walked in. I don't know how long the two caretakers had been absent. The first thing they said to me was to ask who I was. I said I'm He Xiuling's husband and was sent by Li, the head of "610 Office." They said, "We gave her medicine but she didn't want to take it, and she refused to have an intravenous infusion." I said I didn't believe them. A male caretaker left and got two pills and I helped my wife to take them. He also made a cup of medicine for treating a cold. I don't know why they thought cold medicine was going to help someone with meningitis. Two IV bottles hung on the rack before my wife's bed and caretakers hooked my wife to one bottle. The male said my wife pulled the needle out before when they gave her an IV infusion. However, she didn't pull the needle out when I was there, so I doubt whether caretakers gave her any medicine at all. The male made a phone call and told me I could not stay there. I said, "I'm her husband. Why can't I stay? Who makes the rules?" One person peeled an apple and fed my wife two slices; then he said, "She can't eat any more." I didn't understand why they wouldn't give a patient food when she wanted to eat? Did the caretakers not want her to get well? Later they said, "Come tomorrow and bring some clothes for her. Her clothes and pants are all wet because she is incontinent. She is on a urethral tube right now." I left the hospital around 9:00 p.m.

Around 7:00 a.m. March 11, Li again called me and asked, "Didn't you go to the hospital?" I said I went yesterday and the people from the detention centre didn't allow me to stay there. Li said, "Quick, go to the hospital! If you take your time you won't be let in." I packed my wife's clothes and arrived at the hospital at around 8:00 a.m. I met the male on the first floor and we walked to sixth floor together. I tried to go to Ward 32 but he wouldn't let me. He took me to the office and then took me outside and asked me to wait there. Soon he came out and Li was also there. Li said my wife He Xiuling had passed away and that I should ask the doctor for the cause of death.

I went in and asked the doctor who said, "The detention centre sent her here. Go ask them!" I went back out and told the caretakers what the doctor had said. The male caretaker got angry and said, "That doctor is irresponsible! Nowadays you can hardly find a good doctor." Li said, "He Xiuling's body was sent to the morgue."

I was overwhelmed and thought, "Why didn't he ask me to see my wife's body? Why doesn't he let me dress her with the clothes I brought, which he asked me to bring?" Li said, "If you have a problem, go to the division head of the detention centre." I wanted to break the news to my family as soon as possible, and family members who lived close by rushed to the hospital. The doctor said my wife passed away at 7:45 a.m., but when we got to the morgue, the people there told us she was sent there around 9:00 a.m. I looked at my wife's body and saw a bandage wrapped around her lower back. Afterwards, the doctor said they performed a lumbar puncture on her, but Zhang, the detention centre division head said they didn't do anything about the puncture. If my wife had meningitis, why did she have problems with her lower back and chest?

In the afternoon we went to the detention centre to talk to division head Zhang, who said, "He Xiuling's death has nothing to do with the detention centre. We only held her and have nothing to do with anything else that happened to her." He also said, "He Xiuling refused to speak for a long time. When we found she had dizzy spells on March 4, we sent her to a hospital and found she was fine, so we brought her back. On March 5, we sent her to the hospital to have an exam, and she was diagnosed with cerebral thrombosis and emboli in her legs. We brought her back again. On March 8, her condition worsened and we sent her to the Zhuangqu Hospital, where she was found to be in critical condition. She was placed in Level One Care. Division Head Zhang told us to go to the work unit in charge.

We went to the city "610 Office" and explained our situation. The people there told us to go to Li, head of the Zhifu District "610 Office" because he was in charge of everything. Li wasn't in when we arrived, and the other people in the office pretended they didn't know anything about my wife's death. They also refused to call Li. In the end, a man with the last name Gao called Li, and was told Li was in a meeting and could not see people. We went back to the hospital and asked the doctor about my wife. A doctor said they didn't use a urethral tube on my wife, and her doctor was Guo, who had gone to Jinan City. A head surgeon named Sun said, "She had meningitis but we haven't made a correct pathology report." We went to the morgue and the people there asked me to sign a document. I asked what the document was for. He asked my wife's name. I told him and he again asked me to sign, so I did. I left the morgue and suddenly realized there was something behind the document, so I went back and saw division heads Zhang and Li from the "610 Office" were taking away my wife's body. We talked to them and said no matter what their purpose was, they should explain it to us, He Xiuling's family, and investigate and collect evidence.

On March 12 we went to the detention centre and sent a telegram to the city police department and people's prosecutor, asking them to file a case and conduct an investigation into my wife's death. When we went to the city Appeals Office, the officials there turned us over to the district police department, where the people there took notes of our story and made a copy. In the afternoon we received a response from the Zhifu District Police Department Appeal Division, "the detention centre, '610 Office' and Appeal Division are all under the police, and if you are not satisfied with the response you received, you can appeal."

In the afternoon, we went to the Zhuangqu Hospital and asked for my wife's patient records through the detention centre. The record we got was not an original. It was a copy and had many changes in it. Many important details were gone. We went to Ward 32 and tried to inquire of people who were in the same ward with my wife, but all patients there had been transferred and Ward 32 was empty. Doctor Yang accompanied us to the Brain Division and my sister-in-law asked, "Why didn't you get a definite diagnosis even after she died?" A doctor said, "It was only two days. What diagnosis can we get in that short amount of time?" My sister-in-law said, "I know! It is certain that the people from the detention centre sent her here late." People from the detention centre were present, and the doctor became angry, saying, "Don't try to get anything from our hospital. I will no longer talk to you."

On March 13, we went back to the detention centre and requested my wife's body be frozen and not cremated. We then went to the City Politics and Law Committee, but they were on a break. We went to the district prosecutor.

This is what has happened so far. As the victim's husband, I don't know who to go to protest the mysterious circumstances surrounding my wife's death. She was a healthy person when she was arrested and yet died in a very short time. If we don't get a just and satisfactory result, we will continue to appeal. I also hope the judicial departments in China can uphold justice by filing a case, so a person's life will have not have perished in vain. I also hope all kind-hearted people in the world can extend their hand in aiding us to help innocent victims and uphold justice.

Xu Chengben

203-9 Fuyuan Road
Zhifu District, Yantai City, Shandong Province

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/4/5/71690.html