On the evening of April 28th, a tragic incident occurred at Tianjin Hospital (formerly Tianjin Orthopedic Hospital) due to a conflict between medical staff and patients, resulting in six medical personnel casualties, including two fatalities and one critically injured. The news of this incident is currently tightly sealed by the authorities, sparking dissatisfaction among the public who believe that the more official suppression, the wider the spread of information.
On April 29th, a patient armed with a knife managed to bypass hospital security and attacked medical staff working in the orthopedic department at Tianjin Hospital.
An informant from Tianjin, Wang Qiang (pseudonym), described the scene to reporters, stating, “A total of 6 medical staff members were injured, with one doctor having a four to five-centimeter deep wound on his head, while another medical personnel had his abdomen and intestines stabbed by the assailant, causing chaos on the scene.”
“When the security guards saw the assailant pull out the weapon, they fled, abandoning their posts. It was the special police who brought the culprit under control,” he explained.
He further elaborated that due to the assailant indiscriminately stabbing people, many were injured, resulting in two deaths.
One of the deceased was 44-year-old Luo Wei, as public records show, he was the Secretary of the Party Branch and Associate Chief Physician of the Digital Orthopedic Technology Clinical Application Center at Tianjin Hospital.
According to his account, the doctor who suffered abdominal injuries received 10,000 milliliters of A-type blood during surgery, depleting the A-type blood at the Tianjin blood bank, leading to surgeries at several hospitals being halted. Additionally, three other hospitals, including Tianjin Central, Tianjin General Hospital, and Tianjin Third Central Hospital, sent doctors to support Tianjin Hospital.
He criticized the behavior of the security guards at the time, stating, “It’s human nature for security guards to flee in such situations, and it’s normal not to intervene. Who would risk their lives for a monthly salary of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan? However, by fleeing, they could have quickly contacted the police or put on protective gear to assist.”
He emphasized, “This incident is being suppressed. Many public accounts that reported on it were ordered to be deleted and not circulated. Many people witnessed it at the scene, and such a grave nature cannot be suppressed.”
Some individuals on April 29th revealed in the comments section that the suppression of information was not the hospital’s decision but a direct order from local authorities (officials from the Health Commission at the scene), citing an upcoming summit as the reason for the censorship.
According to official online information, as the rotating chair of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, China will host the 25th meeting of the Council of the Heads of State of the SCO Member States in Tianjin this autumn. The preparations have been ongoing since March 13th. Chen Min’er, the leader of the Tianjin Summit Preparatory Team, attended a meeting and gave a speech.
Many people expressed dissatisfaction with the authorities’ censorship of relevant information. On social media platforms, candle emojis, yellow flowers, and mourning messages were deleted.
A video blogger from Tianjin posted an image with the caption “Truly heartbroken,” which was promptly buried by the platform.
“What happened at Tianjin Hospital? Why is it trending on Weibo in such a peculiar manner?” a blog post met the same fate.
Online users engaged in a battle of wits with the platform, where while the platform deleted, users reposted and called for support.
A doctor and blogger from Liaoning posted, “The trending topic vanished. I timidly ask, do you know about the incidents at Tianjin Hospital?”
A graduate student from Tianjin Medical University, “Da Li Does Not Like to Play,” expressed support on April 30th, saying, “Who will protect the doctors? They are someone’s husbands, wives, and children.”
Furthermore, a doctor’s girlfriend on the forum stated, “Information is not allowed to be spread. My partner works at another hospital, and every hospital recorded the incident because of the police’s involvement.”
Some individuals outsmarted the social media platforms by slightly altering the name of Tianjin Hospital, leading to posts such as, “Who knows the drama at ‘Tianjin Anti-Imperialist Hospital’?,” receiving applause from other users who acknowledged the tactic to evade deletion within ten minutes.
Local netizens expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “Tianjin always reports negative news from elsewhere but conceals its own.”
Some netizens sarcastically remarked, “Do you believe it? When I walked out, two old men at the intersection were talking about Tianjin Hospital. The more they suppress, the wider it spreads.”
Wang Qiang also indicated, “Some people simply do not want everyone to know the situation. In some places, where do two lives really stand? While the hospital may provide compensation, for the families, it’s a lost life.”
Though the bloody incident in Tianjin has been suppressed, it quickly circulated privately. Many shocked doctors called for the severe punishment of the assailant, while some patients expressed dissatisfaction with the hospital on the comments section, stating that the extreme actions of patients were a result of being pushed to the edge.
One patient from Tianjin, Lin Lin, claimed to have been a victim of the hospital’s orthopedic department, stating, “I spent 160,000 yuan at Tianjin Hospital for a hip replacement, including hospitalization, various tests, and treatments, totaling 200,000 yuan. The doctor assured me that I would be able to walk normally a month post-surgery, and in three to four months, I could run and jump like normal. They said it was a minor issue, but after the surgery, I couldn’t even walk properly and eventually became paralyzed.”
Mr. Sun from Tianjin shared, “In 2018, my wife underwent minimally invasive surgery for a protruding disc, one week after the surgery, it relapsed, followed by a second surgery. Half a month later, it relapsed again. The X-rays revealed calcium deposits compressing the nerves due to body constitution issues. If things didn’t improve, they would opt for open surgery.”
“My wife was too scared to proceed with the surgery, and instead resorted to traditional Chinese medicine for recovery, now she is as good as new.”
He criticized the hospital for its unreasonable arrangements, stating, “They send patients home during holidays and ask them to return for hospitalization after the break.” Wang Qiang believed that every individual and family have different circumstances and varying levels of endurance. Some families spent 200,000 yuan without a cure, and they would not sacrifice a life. Because apart from the 200,000 yuan, they have other resources and income, at least feeling it is not worth it.
He further explained that for some families, even just tens of thousands are a heavy price to pay. He stressed, “This patient might have distorted perceptions due to unemployment and no income. Every action he took was calculated with consideration of consequences and costs. He probably took a gamble and didn’t care about survival, how else could he have inflicted a four to five-centimeter wound on someone’s head?! But the reality is, it’s very unfair, right? (Doctors) didn’t provoke him, why the attack?!”
Some online discussions highlighted the serious flaws in China’s healthcare system, which forced people into a corner, unable to find a way out. Calls for mutual understanding between doctors and patients emerged, emphasizing that doctors do not intend to harm patients deliberately, and various factors contribute to treatment outcomes.
A proposed solution suggested the implementation of a blacklist system, allowing patients and doctors to have a mutual choice – patients have the right to choose their doctors, and doctors have the right to select their patients.