‘He has destroyed my life’: Chinese doctor who claims her physician ex-husband poisoned her into disability gets day in court — 6 years on
- Six years after she first alleged her physician husband poisoned her, a doctor in eastern China gets her day in court
- Woman claims husband gave her drugs that have ruined her life after wrongly suspecting her of having an affair
A Chinese doctor who claims she was slowly poisoned to the point of disability by her husband – who is also a doctor – over alleged infidelity has finally got her day in court.
Six years after the woman made her original allegations, the private hearing which opened on January 11 in China’s eastern province of Shandong, has attracted national attention.
The alleged victim, Liu Chang, published several posts on social media in 2019 accusing her husband, Gao Zhisen, of poisoning her with hormone-based drugs from 2016 onwards, causing her physical disability and second-degree serious injury.
On January 9, Liu told the media that Gao will be tried for intentional injury.
“I have become disabled and severely depressed because of this incident, he has destroyed my life,” she said.
Liu alleges that in late October 2016, more than a year after she married her husband, she felt unwell and suffered from blurred vision, leg cramps, dramatic weight gain and a large number of cracks appearing on her skin.
Her doctor suspected that she had taken a large amount of hormone-based drugs for a short period of time, at which point Liu recalled that her husband had given her a “cold medicine” in June 2016.
In late September 2017, while separated from Gao after a fight, Liu’s mother found a large amount of medication at home, including seven dexamethasones, a hormonal drug, and in December 2017 the couple divorced.
Liu believed that her husband, Gao, was trying to murder her with the drug, so reported the case to the police who at that time said there was not enough evidence to proceed.
In the six months that followed, Liu spoke to several authorities, but it was not until April 2018 that the local health bureau suspended Gao for seven days and fined him 500 yuan (US$74) for “taking medicines without the consent of the head nurse”.
In 2019, Liu gained national attention when she publicly revealed her ordeal on mainland social media.
In a media interview, Liu said she and her husband had a bad relationship after their marriage and that he often left home following arguments.
She said that Gao had never apologised to her.
Gao has denied poisoning his ex-wife, saying that they both “drank the same glass of water and the same carton of milk”.
He said the dexamethasone was used genuinely to treat a medical condition Liu had. He also claims his wife had an affair with a local official, which Liu denies.
In March 2022, the police told Liu that her case was “eligible for filing” and that an investigation would begin, and in April Gao was formally arrested.
The police told Liu that her ex-husband had copied another poisoning case which had been reported in the news – that of a doctor in Inner Mongolia in northern China who poisoned a colleague.
Liu said: “I don’t want money and I’ve given up on civil damages. He has ruined my life and I just want justice.”
