Mr. Lan Bing Nearly Blind in Both Eyes Due to Abuse

Mr. Lan Bing, 40, lived in Shanghai City. He was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment by the Xuhui District Court in 2001. Since then he has been detained in the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai City. Due to the abuse he suffered, his eyes frequently bled. He is presently nearly blind in both eyes.

According to a recent report, Mr. Lan was not seeing clearly as early as the beginning of 2008. His eyes frequently bled and developed more and more black spots. Consequently, his vision became worse, and he was examined at the hospital affiliated to the prison. It turned out that his retina did not have any reflection, so the physicians proposed to do further diagnosis in the hospital.

His disease kept on developing, and Fan Zhenqun, director of the Sixth Ward, arranged to take him to an expert in a field other than ophthalmology for an examination. Fan Zhenqun bade the expert that "this is a political task," instructing him not to do a normal exam. Therefore, the diagnosis was recorded as "nothing serious."

Mr. Lan received medical examinations at an outside hospital three times. Each time, the guards claimed that he was a political criminal and prevented the experts and professors from disclosing the real condition of his illness. This way the prison achieved its "humanitarian" purpose, and was able to keep on detaining him under the excuse that his disease was "not serious."

During the medical examination, the physicians revealed that his disease was hard to cure. So far there is no good way to stop the bleeding in his eyes. When his family members talked to Wang Haocheng, chief of the Sixth Ward, he responded that it was not a big deal. When they talked to Fan Zhenqun, they were told, "Lan Bing's condition is stable and has not worsened." In the meantime, Fan Zhenquan reported the same thing to the authorities at the prison.

Recently, Mr. Lan's condition has become very serious, but the Sixth Ward is still deceiving his family. He fainted due to hypertension, but he still needed the appraisal of the physicians in the hospital affiliated to the prison for release for medical treatment. The current appraisal is that Mr. Lan Bing's vision is below 0.01, and his hypertension symptoms are in the second stage, a serious condition. The physician screened his vision with a computerized instrument, but was unable to determine his degree of vision due to eye arteriosclerosis spots. He also had some heart problems.

The judicial department stipulated the scope of diseases and disabilities for release for medical treatment. Mr. Lan Bing developed two diseases within this scope and is qualified for release. In addition, his hypertension is in the second stage and is serious.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2009/1/3/192883.html