Authorities in Laiwu , Shandong province , are investigating the suspicious death of a psychiatric patient after video footage that showed her repeatedly being physically abused by hospital nurses caused an uproar across the country.
Wang Xiuying , a farmer from Yanzhuang village, had a nervous breakdown in early December while preparing for her son's wedding and was sent to a private psychiatric hospital on December 7.
The hospital promised that Wang would be released, completely recovered, in 10 to 20 days, but she died in hospital one week later, said her son, Zhu Chuanming .
The family were not allowed to visit Wang during the week and, after her death, asked for closed-circuit camera footage of Wang's ward to remember her. While viewing the footage, they found out about the brutal beatings, of which the hospital's management was seemingly unaware.
The footage, broadcast by a Shandong television station and widely distributed online, showed women in white medical coats prodding Wang with a mop and kicking her in the stomach, even as she lay on the floor. The women were later confirmed to be nurses at the hospital.
Many people left online postings expressing their outrage and described the staff as beasts and 'the real mental patients'.
A statement released by the Laiwu municipal government said initial investigations confirmed that Wang had been beaten five times by three nurses at the Laiwu Mental Diseases Specialist Hospital, a private facility. It said Wang imagined she was being persecuted and never accepted treatment.
