(Minghui.org) Ms. Xu Huixian, 71, began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. Before that, she had many health problems and a bad temper. Yet she fully recovered after she began practicing, and her temper also improved. However, because she practices Falun Gong, she has faced rounds of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Below are her experiences:

Ms. Xu, who is from Taiping Town of Zhenyuan County, Gansu Province, was detained in the Lanzhou Women's Prison until her health became so poor that her life was in danger.

She was sentenced to prison for one year in 2004 for talking to people about Falun Gong. After she was released, her retirement pension was cut off and local police and officials often harassed her.

She was arrested again in March 2015 for speaking to people about Falun Gong over the telephone and was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in the Lanzhou Women's Prison.

Prison officials called Ms. Xu's family in May 2016 and said that she was in the hospital, and that her life was in danger. They told the family to start the procedure for bailing her out for medical treatment. The procedure included getting approval from several different government branches. After the family spent two weeks going through all the steps required, the prison officials claimed that Ms. Xu's health had improved and refused to release her.

Ms. Xu's family visited her in the prison one week later. But she was too weak to hold the phone in the visiting room, and her mind was not clear. The family demanded that she be released for medical treatment and said that they would hold the prison responsible if anything happened on her. Two days later, the prison doctor issued a second critical health notice and wanted the family to take her home.

Ms. Xu Huixian left the Lanzhou Women's prison on June 17, 2016 in an ambulance with an oxygen tube to help her breathe. The ambulance arrived at the Zhenyuan County Political and Legal Affairs Committee at 1 a.m. The people from the prison wanted to drop Ms. Xu off and leave immediately, but the family requested that they not remove the oxygen and instead bring her to a hospital in nearby Qingyang City, which was only 60 km away. The people from the prison wanted 1,500 yuan for delivering Ms. Xu to the hospital in Qingyang City. The family had no choice but to agree.

When Ms. Xu arrived at the hospital, she was admitted to the emergency room immediately. When her husband saw her in the hospital, he was scared and said that he had never seen anyone so skinny in his entire 80-year life. He couldn't believe that a person could change so much while in prison. Her neighbors said the same after visiting her in the hospital.

Ms. Xu asked to go home on the morning of June 26. Currently, she is unable to eat, she suffers from uncontrollable irritation, and her mind is not clear. It is not known what kind of treatment she was given in the prison hospital.