Recently, a chief obstetrician in Zhoukou, Henan, named Dr. Shao died by jumping off a building, sparking widespread attention online. The family revealed that Dr. Shao’s suicide was triggered by three medical disputes that led to online harassment. Before the tragic event, Dr. Shao had called the police for help. The first time she sought police assistance, no case was filed, and the interaction was unpleasant; the second time, the police opened a case but did not provide a clear solution.
On the evening of August 4th, Mr. Zhang, Dr. Shao’s husband (alias), confirmed to “Jinyun News” that on the same morning, Dr. Shao’s body had already been buried in her hometown.
Mr. Zhang disclosed that the online harassment stemmed from three medical disputes. Initially, videos posted by the families of two patients did not attract much attention. However, the families involved in these three disputes crossed paths on Douyin (TikTok), began to interact and recommend each other’s content, leading to a large number of internet trolls attacking Dr. Shao.
“On July 30th, Dr. Shao went to the police station on Taihao Road in Zhoukou to file a report, but the police refused to open a case. At that time, Dr. Shao also had a disagreement with the police, and I comforted her over the phone when she returned home.” Mr. Zhang said that on July 31st, staff from Zhoukou Sixth Hospital accompanied Dr. Shao to Taihao Road Police Station for a second time, and he took a day off work to go with her. “Although the case was opened the second time, the police did not provide a clear solution and did not promptly contact the online harassers to take down the videos. I told the police not to take this lightly because there are many cases where online harassment leads to suicides.”
Reports indicate that on August 1st, Dr. Shao posted a farewell video on Douyin and had a video call with her grandchildren before leaving a suicide note for Mr. Zhang and then jumping off the building.
“The suicide note detailed the specifics of the three medical disputes and urged me to clear her name. I feel she was in complete despair with no one to help her.” After the incident, the police took Dr. Shao’s phone from the scene, and they removed her farewell video and all videos from the accounts of the online harassers.
Following widespread attention to the incident, on August 2nd, local authorities, health commission, and Zhoukou Sixth Hospital held a meeting, with the police forming a special investigative team.
On August 5th, the Zhoukou Health Commission issued a notification stating that on August 1st at 8:38 pm, a person fell from the building at Zhoukou Sixth People’s Hospital, sustaining fatal injuries and passing away on August 2nd at 1:40 am. The person who fell was a 57-year-old doctor named Shao from the hospital.