Woman in Critical Condition Denied Medical Parole Again by a Beijing Prison

(Minghui.org) On September 23, 2022, Tiantanghe Women’s Prison in Beijing informed Ms. Jia Fengzhi’s family of its decision to deny her medical parole on the grounds that she didn’t have any life-threatening condition.

Ironically, the prison notified her family weeks ago that she was in critical condition with an extremely low platelet count.

Ms. Jia, a Beijing resident in her 50s, is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year term for distributing calendars with information about Falun Gong, which has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.

Ms. Jia was held at the Pinggu District Detention Center for two years before being admitted to the prison on November 18, 2021. Twenty days later, she was admitted to an intensive care unit, after she was found to have an extremely low platelet count, about 20,000 platelets per microliter of blood, which is less than one-tenth of the normal range.

After tests, the doctor discovered antibodies in Ms. Jia that were attacking the platelets, thereby ruling out a platelet transfusion. The prison guards blamed her for not cooperating with the treatment and urged the doctor to discharge her.

While she was in a temporary detention facility before being taken back to the prison, purple spots covered her body (purpura). She didn’t sleep well the first few weeks back at the prison.

The guards forced Ms. Jia to submit to injections, even though she protested because she had severe side effects when she’d been given the same treatment when she was younger and the results were minimal.

After she was given the injections, Ms. Jia began to have severe headaches, dizziness, palpitations, numbness in her arms, and even stuttering. She also felt sleepy and very weak. She reported this to the guards and doctor, but the doctor claimed these were normal symptoms for the treatment. While Ms. Jia was forced to continue with the injections, her platelet count remained very low.

On March 9, 2022, the prison notified Ms. Jia’s family of her critical condition. They also called them several times afterward about her condition.

When her platelet count dropped even further, to 15,000 platelets per microliter of blood, on May 16, she was taken to the hospital for resuscitation again.

Ms. Jia’s family applied with the prison on June 2 for her to be released on medical parole. The prison turned them down, claiming that Ms. Jia didn’t cooperate with the treatment.

Ms. Jian was taken to the hospital for resuscitation a third time on August 8. While the prison informed her family several times of her condition, they nevertheless denied her medical parole again on September 23.

Perpetrators’ information:

Chen Xiwei (陈熹微), secretary, Tiantanghe Women’s PrisonDong Xiaoqing (董晓庆), head of the third ward, Tiantanghe Women’s PrisonXing Mei (邢玫), head of Tiantanghe Women’s Prison: [phone]

(More perpetrators’ information is available in the original Chinese article.)

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