(Minghui.org) A woman on medical parole was returned to custody when she was still recovering from a mastectomy. What awaited her in prison was brutal beatings. Five of her ribs were broken as a result, but a prison doctor dismissed her injuries and refused to provide her medical care.

Ms. Ke Fanghua, a 74-year-old resident of Shangcheng City, was arrested in 2014 for refusing to renounce Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline being persecuted by the Chinese communist regime. She was sentenced to 4 years in Henan Province Women's Prison in Xinxiang City.

Ms. Ke was beaten, and one of her wounds festered. The prison refused to get her medical attention. The infection worsened and created a big hole in one of her breasts by 2016. Only then did the prison release her on medical parole.

Ms. Ke eventually had to have her breast surgically removed in the summer of 2017. The local police continued to harass her at home and took her back into custody on November 7, 2017, while she was still recovering. They returned her to the same prison on January 18, 2018.

As Ms. Ke kept firm to her faith, she was put in solitary confinement, where five inmates beat her for two straight days. She suffered five broken ribs, but a prison doctor brushed off her injuries and did not provide her with any treatment.

This is not the first time that Ms. Ke has been imprisoned and beaten for her faith. She was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in January 2010 and was subjected to severe abuse during her first imprisonment. On February 4, 2013, inmate You Yumei kicked the plastic stool on which Ms. Ke was sitting. Ms. Ke fell, hit her head, and went into shock. She had a large lump on her head and fractured two sections of her tailbone. The prison did not give her any treatment. Two sections of her tailbone remain dislocated as of today.

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