The bout of flu that turned into a winter tragedy for one family in Beijing
Relatives spend hundreds of thousands of yuan and seek treatment at a string of hospitals in desperate attempt to save a 60-year-old man
The 60-year-old man was well-off and well-connected. He was happy, healthy and living with his family in the heart of Beijing. The only thing bothering him was a runny nose and a nagging fever. It seemed like he had caught the flu.
But in less than a month he was dead from multiple organ failure and adult respiratory distress syndrome.
He was treated at a series of hospitals in Beijing and his family exhausted their social connections and funds before he died in an intensive care unit at a top medical centre on January 23.
The man’s story – detailed by his son-in-law in an impassioned blog post describing the family’s desperate quest for treatment – laid bare two big problems in China’s health services: the high cost of treatment and overworked medical staff.
The 26,000-word post, published on WeChat under the name Li Ke, said Li’s father-in-law, who was not named, started seeing a doctor on December 30 two days after coming down with a runny nose and fever.
He went to a community hospital where he was diagnosed with influenza, and transferred to a better facility when his condition deteriorated into pneumonia.