(Minghui.org)
Name: Teng YuguoChinese Name: 滕玉国Gender: MaleAge: 67City: ShenyangProvince: LiaoningOccupation: N/ADate of Death: December 2, 2022Date of Most Recent Arrest: October 13, 2020Most Recent Place of Detention: Dongling Prison
A Shenyang City, Liaoning Province, man with late-stage colon cancer and liver cancer passed away days after he was denied medical parole, simply because he refused to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. He was 67.
Mr. Teng Yuguo’s wife couldn’t fall asleep for days and often burst into tears over his death. She said as soon as she closed her eyes, she saw the scene of her emaciated and dying husband, still shackled in the heavily guarded hospital bed.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
Mr. Teng was arrested on October 13, 2020, while harvesting pumpkins with his wife in their yard. He was sentenced to five years by the Yuhong District Court around February 2021.
After he was taken to the Dongling Prison, the prison denied his family from visiting him and also limited the amount of cash they could deposit for him to 100 yuan every month, with the excuse that he didn’t renounce Falun Gong. Mr. Teng didn’t have much left to buy extra food when the food provided by the prison was very poor and scarce.
When an inmate was released in early November 2022, Mr. Teng asked for his help to inform his family of his developing colon cancer and incontinence about six months ago.
The family rushed to the prison and was finally allowed to see him, with four guards present. They were devastated to see the emaciated man sitting in a wheelchair. His legs were severely swollen. He was also wearing a diaper.
The guard said to the family that they could either send Mr. Teng to the elderly ward, so he didn’t have to do the forced labor; or they could take him to the hospital for treatment.
The family questioned the guards why they kept telling them that Mr. Teng was doing great in the prison, without mentioning a word about his condition and causing him to miss the best time of treatment.
At his family’s insistence, Mr. Teng was taken to the Shenyang No.4 Hospital. The doctor opened him up, only to see that tumors had filled his intestines and were obstructing his bowels. The tumors had also spread to his liver. The doctor said there was nothing more he could do. He estimated that he only had a few months left.
By then, Mr. Teng couldn’t eat and relied on IVs to sustain his life. He was so weak that he didn’t even have the strength to sit up. He didn’t have bowel movements, either.
When Mr. Teng was kept in the intensive care unit in the hospital, the prison guards watched him around the clock. His daughter and wife took turns caring for him. The prison ordered the family to pay his medical expenses, which ran about 3,000 yuan a day. The family turned in the only 6,000 yuan they had. His wife, who had lung surgery last year and was still recovering, had a hard time borrowing money for him.
Mr. Teng’s family applied for medical parole for him. The prison originally approved it, but later took back the decision, with the excuse that he refused to renounce Falun Gong.
As the family couldn’t afford to keep Mr. Teng in the hospital, the prison transferred him back to the prison on November 30. Only a day later, he was on the verge of death.
Not wanting him to die in the prison, the prison called an ambulance on December 1 and took him to the Shenyang 739 Hospital for resuscitation.
The prison informed Mr. Teng’s family of his condition the next afternoon. His wife, children, and other relatives rushed to the hospital heavily guarded by the police.
Mr. Teng, who was on life support, was still conscious but was unable to speak. The prison guards prohibited his family from getting close to him. With his wife’s strong protest, she was allowed to come over to him, with several officers standing nearby watching closely.
During their final farewell , Mr. Teng’s wife was devastated to see that he was still shackled. She shouted at the guards to remove them, and they finally did.
At 11:51 p.m. on December 2, Mr. Teng passed away, under tight surveillance. The guards still didn’t allow his family to get close to his body or dress him up. Instead, they hired a company to handle his makeup. Also under tight surveillance, Mr. Teng’s body was taken to a funeral home and cremated on December 4.
Tian Zhi (田志), head of Dongling Prison: +86-24-24711755Pang Ting (庞挺), secretary of Dadong District Political and Legal Affairs CommitteeWang Peijun (王佩军), director of Shenyang City Justice BureauLiu Jing (刘京), deputy director of Shenyang City Justice Bureau
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