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Man chained for 21 years sent for treatment
By Xiao Ma (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-05 06:11
A hospital in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is providing
free treatment to a schizophrenic man who was chained for 21 years by his mother
due to a lack of medical fees.
Doctors from the Inner Mongolia No 3 People's Hospital in the regional
capital of Hohhot brought Wang Baozhu to a ward on December 29, the local Inner
Mongolia Morning News reported.
Wang Baozhu, a mentally-ill man chained by his
heartbroken mother for 21 years. [China
Daily] | Ding Zhuanyun, the mother of the
41-year-old, who had feared he might harm people if not chained, struggled to
hold back her tears as he was taken away for the treatment.
"My greatest regret in my life is I was too poor to afford better treatment
for him," said the 71-year-old woman from Zhuozi County under the city of
Jining. She has two sons and three daughters.
After Wang's plight was highlighted, residents across the country offered
donations.
Before the hospital stepped in to offer treatment, the fund amounted to more
than 3,000 yuan (US$367). A single further donation of 10,000 yuan (US$1,233) is
to come next April.
"I cannot give up hope for my son. He still has some thinking of a normal
man," said Ding.
Ding said her son had only a piece of shabby cloth for clothing, and he lived
in an empty house without a roof and with only three walls.
Attacked villagers
A pile of straw was used as fuel for a fire to warm him up, and a pot
contained water for him.
"For 21 years, I brought him food to eat and water to drink every day. My
hair turned white, and I don't know who will die first me or my dearest son,"
the paper quoted the mother as saying.
Wang's problems began in 1982 when he failed to enter a polytechnic school
after graduating at the age of 18 from a local junior high school. In
depression, he went to Hohhot as a migrant worker with his uncle but suffered a
leg injury after falling from a construction framework.
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