Coronavirus: Chinese teen with cerebral palsy dies alone at home after family is taken away and quarantined
A teenager with cerebral palsy from China’s Hubei province allegedly died on Wednesday as there was no one to take care of him at home after his family was quarantined on suspicion of coronavirus.
The 17-year-old boy — Yan Cheng — needed round-the-clock care owing to his health condition. He was reportedly found dead in his bed six days after his father and his 11-year-old brother were taken from their home and quarantined at a facility.
Cerebral palsy are neurological disorders that appear in infancy or early childhood and permanently affect body movement and muscle coordination.
According to local media reports, Beijing Youth Daily confirmed with the local government in Huahe town, located in Hubei Province’s Hong’an County, that the teenage boy died on January 29. An investigation has been launched by government officials from Hong’an County.
The story has been detailed on the Chinese WeChat platform. "News of the teen’s death first circulated on the Chinese intranet when Dami & Xiaomi, a WeChat platform advocating for families of children with intellectual disabilities, published a report that claimed that Yan Cheng had died after being left alone at home for six days," says Mothership report.
The report on the WeChat platform says on the afternoon of January 29, Yan Xiaowen, a farmer in Huanggang, Hubei, received a notice from the village committee that his 17-year-old son had just died.
"Since January 23, Xiaowen and his 11-year-old autistic youngest son have been isolated for epidemic prevention and control, leaving Cheng with cerebral palsy alone at home and entrusting the village committee to take care of him," it says.
The 49-year-old father and his two sons took a bus from Wuhan on January 17 and returned to their home village to celebrate the Chinese New Year. After three days, the father developed a fever, and he along with the younger son were quarantined. They were sent to Xinghua Township Health Center, a centralized treatment place in Hong'an County.
"Worried that Cheng was not getting proper care from the local Communist Party officials entrusted with the boy’s welfare, his father appealed for help on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like network, on Tuesday," says the South China Morning Post.
The report on the platform also says the boy’s aunt fed him twice — January 23 and January 24 — but could not visit him after that because “of her discomfort”. On January 28, she saw her nephew again, but said "the situation is very bad," the report added.
"He was lying on a lounger, his head was suspended, and his mouth and face were dirty, as was the inside of the quilt. I brought boiling water, wiped his mouth and face clean, changed his urine, and fed half-a-glass of boiling water. He ate a small cup of rice and stopped eating it," the report quotes the aunt.
According to the South China Morning Post, a Huahe township employee told Beijing Youth Daily that Hongan county had set up an inquiry into the boy’s death.
The Wuhan coronavirus outbreak has so far killed 213 and sickened 9,692 in China, including 43 new fatalities.