In February this year, a 9-year-old girl in Zhejiang underwent surgery at Henan People’s Hospital for a congenital vascular tumor in her throat and ended up in a vegetative state. The hospital refused to provide monitoring after the operation and tampered with the medical records, which was reported by the family.
According to the report by Benliu News on November 6, Zhang Long and Wu Jie’s daughter Ruirui (pseudonym) had a congenital vascular tumor. On February 10, the couple took Ruirui to Henan People’s Hospital for examination during the Chinese New Year holiday.
After the examination, the hospital’s vascular tumor specialist outpatient clinic and the head of the vascular tumor department suggested that Ruirui be hospitalized, stating that “this is a simple injection surgery, hospitalization for a week will not affect the child’s studies.”
After a series of examinations, Ruirui underwent surgery on February 13. Zhang Long and Wu Jie did not expect that Ruirui would never wake up again.
After the surgery, Zhang Long and his wife were informed that the operation was very successful, but due to the heavy medication, Ruirui needed to be transferred to the AICU (Anesthesia Intensive Care Unit) for observation and could return to a regular ward within 24-48 hours. However, until February 17, for five consecutive days, Ruirui remained unconscious in the AICU.
Ruirui’s condition began to deteriorate and was transferred to the PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit). On the morning of February 19, a doctor in the PICU told Wu Jie that Ruirui’s breathing tube was broken and needed to be reinserted. On February 23, a doctor in the PICU suddenly said that Ruirui could not be awakened.
Zhang Long and his wife requested the hospital to continue active treatment, but the hospital has been passive in response.
On April 26, Ruirui was transferred from the PICU to the pediatric regular ward and has been in a vegetative state ever since.
Zhang Long said, “When the child came to the hospital, it was not an emergency or a serious illness. From the vascular tumor outpatient clinic to the vascular tumor inpatient department, from the operating room to the AICU and then to the PICU, a ‘simple injection surgery’ recommended by the experts made the child like this. We now regret coming to the hospital for this surgery.”
On February 23, after learning that Ruirui could not wake up, Zhang Long and his wife requested to view the monitoring in the PICU, and the response was “there is no monitoring.” Two days later, they hired a lawyer to seal the medical records but found that many contents in the records were different from what the doctors had previously said, and some words that the doctors had never mentioned appeared in the records.
On April 26, when Ruirui left the PICU, Zhang Long once again requested to seal the monitoring but was refused. They called the police to request the sealing of the PICU and admission monitoring. When the police entered the PICU, the family heard someone saying “the monitoring is broken.”
In late April, Zhang Long and his family filed a civil lawsuit with the Zhengzhou Jinshui District Court regarding this matter, but no outcome has been reached yet.
On May 15 and June 6, Zhang Long and his wife complained to the Zhengzhou Health Commission twice. On August 6, the “Administrative Response Opinions” from the Zhengzhou Health Commission confirmed the tampering of medical records and initiated investigations into 13 issues involved.
Tianyancha shows that Henan People’s Hospital has been penalized multiple times this year for not implementing medical safety management regulations, receiving penalties in July and August. Previously, it was fined by the health authorities for not filling out medical records as required.
Additionally, the hospital has been sued multiple times for medical liability disputes and has become the defendant, leading to enforcement actions.