Poet nurse recounts life with mentally ill patients

With a little help...

New kids section at Beijing Book Building

Her shouts prompted a fellow nurse to run to her aid. The duo managed to take the patient out of the door frame and applied artificial respiration. They felt very excited when the patient finally started speaking. But ever since, An has been afraid of answering the call of nature in the night.

Zhong Chaokang, a veteran writer in Chengdu, considers An's book meaningful because it suggests everybody, including doctors in such hospitals, can fall victim to mental disease at a time of mounting pressure.

An narrates the story of an old doctor who became insane and kept writing to an imaginary Japanese girlfriend. The address of his 619 letters was a hospital for the mentally ill. After treatment, he became a janitor at his hospital.

An knows many such patients because they have been hospitalized several times.

"There are so many mysteries about them. The cause for their disease is unknown. An electroencephalogram shows nothing wrong with them. When a patient has an attack, he can wear only a shirt and not catch cold in winter. They can look normal after treatment. But there can be a relapse for unknown reasons from time to time," she says.

Showing sympathy for other mentally ill people wandering the streets, An sometimes offers them food.

"They are even poorer than their counterparts in hospitals," she says.