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Toddler’s death raises new questions about human costs of China’s zero-Covid measures

Hamartia Antidote

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  • Anguished father says his son was dying from gas poisoning while he pleaded with local authorities for help
  • Three-year-old’s death is latest in string of heart-wrenching cases where urgent treatments were denied due to Covid protocols
The death of a three-year-old boy in a district under lockdown in the city of Lanzhou has sparked fresh anger about the human cost of China’s strict zero-Covid-19 policy. The measures, which have included erratic and lengthy lockdowns, have been linked to a series of deaths across the country.

The death, which happened on Tuesday in the capital of the northwestern province of Gansu, came to light after the father made a series of online posts on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

Tuo Shilei wrote that the drama began around noon when he had discovered his wife unconscious in their home. He tried to call an ambulance while trying to save her and after about 20 minutes, Tuo was able to resuscitate her.

Soon after, Tuo discovered that their son was lying on a bed unconscious.

After unsuccessfully attempting to use the same emergency procedure to revive the boy, Tuo said he tried several times to call for ambulances, the police and his community centre but was unable to get help.
An ambulance that had been dispatched 40 minutes earlier for his wife had still not arrived.

With the help of some neighbours, Tuo was able to climb over a compound barrier and then tried to seek help at a nearby checkpoint, but was refused and told to continue calling for an ambulance.

“At that time my kid was still breathing,” Tuo wrote on Weibo.
Finally, Tuo was able to find a taxi with help from police and residents.

About 10 minutes later, Tuo and his son arrived at a hospital, but it was too late. The boy was pronounced dead at 3pm, according to a report by Caixin. His wife was later treated at the same hospital and is in stable condition.

“If my kid could have been sent to the hospital earlier, he might have been saved,” Tuo said on Weibo.

As of Wednesday evening, Tuo said the local authorities had not contacted him. “I hope the community can give me a direct response. Why did they not let me go into an emergency centre? Why did they ask me to wait for the senior officials to be notified?” he asked.
In recent weeks, Lanzhou has seen a Covid-19 flare-up, and the family’s home is within a locked down area. On Tuesday, the city did not log any positive cases, but did record 51 asymptomatic infections, 29 of which were in Qilihe district, where the family lives.

In a statement on Tuesday, the local police said that “improper use of a liquefied gas stove has caused the death by carbon monoxide poisoning”.
In their latest statement on Thursday, Lanzhou authorities conceded the death had exposed “poor handling of the incident, weak emergency response capabilities and a rigid work style”, but did not admit any wrongdoing. An investigation was continuing, they said.

They said their investigation showed that a call for an ambulance got through at 12.18pm, but the ambulance had not been dispatched until 1.44pm, and that medical staff had tried to help Tuo online.

On Tuesday, Lanzhou authorities said that local officials should not oversimplify procedures and should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to pandemic control, adding their attitudes should not be blunt and indifferent, a local party newspaper reported.
The boy’s death has sparked another round of online debate about the hefty cost of China’s stringent zero-Covid policy, and the pressure local officials are under to contain the highly infectious disease.

“Under pandemic controls, it is difficult to leave the home and the community. Even when you finally reach the hospital, it’s hard to get in without various nucleic acid requirements,” wrote one Weibo user.

“The epidemic outbreak has made it difficult to seek medical treatment numerous times … It’s really a repeated lesson [unlearned],” said another user.
The tragedy has also reignited public fear and anger about a string of deaths earlier this year that happened in other cities that were under lockdown.
In March, Zhou Shengni, a nurse at Shanghai East Hospital, went to her own hospital for help while struggling to breathe after an asthma attack. She died after being turned away because the emergency department was closed for disinfection.
In April, while Shanghai was placed under a two-month lockdown, Chen Shunping, a 71-year-old violinist, suffered from acute pancreatitis. Two hospitals refused to admit the man due to Covid-19 restrictions or closures. That night, Chen committed suicide by jumping from his residential building because he “could not stand the pain”, according to a note he left for his family.
Earlier in January, when Xian in central Shaanxi province was battling an outbreak, two pregnant women lost their babies after coronavirus-related restrictions delayed their treatment.
Both were kept waiting despite bleeding, and were then refused entry to the hospitals because they did not have valid Covid-19 test results, or because they lived in a “closed-loop management area”. By the time they were finally admitted, they had already lost their babies.
Xian has sacked or suspended several staff at the hospitals, and has since revised its Covid-19 rules to allow healthcare facilities to provide “green lanes” to pregnant women and patients with critical illnesses. Residential compounds have reportedly started to keep records of pregnant women.

Xinlu Liang
Xinlu Liang
 
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That is bad, I have to admit. But from what I heard, CCP going to review their zero covid policy and easing might come soon.

Xi claim zero covid policy but he never claim this will stay forever. Adjustment need to be make according to situation. A lot of factors need to take into consideration before changes can be taken.
 
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There is a official report on the emergency call timeline of what happened.

It wasn't at all as simple as presented by the media. Quite a bit of misrepresentation in the way they told the story.

The mother has collapsed and later revived to consiousness. The father call emergency, the mother was arranged for remote diagnostic sessioon with a doctor, it was recommend that she go to a hospital for further examination and that is when a ambulance was called to take her to hospital. i.e. the emergency service is not informed of an urgent emergency.

Later the son fell ill, the father told others the son is just in shock of seeing the mother collapsed and fell ill. He actually sent the son to go back to sleep. As a Hui muslim and as common practice, he called a local religious leader to come and pray for the son. Only after much latter, that he realized something is seriously wrong that he seek emergency help.

The initial report say that the cause of the tragedy is of a child unknowingly turn on the gas valve that cause the poisoning.

Speculation from Chinese social media suspect that the father probably think the mother has some medical condition and got sick, he likely did not realize the gas leak and took appropriate measure after the mother collapsed. The son was ok at the time and only felt sick later. That suggest that the leak might be still happening. He thought that the son is just emotionally stressed, and only after one hour later that he call emergency (this time for the son) . He did not wait for the arrival ot the ambulance and went to the hospital by private car but it is still too late.

There is probably a lesson here. Why the father, mother and others could not tell there is a gas leak is unexplained, and also why the mother and son got sick and the father did not? It might has to do with which part of the house they were in.
 
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Millions of nameless americans dead, nobody cares.
A gas leak tragedy with one Chinese boy, the world media are concerned.
American lives really dont worth much these days.
 
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Millions of nameless americans dead, nobody cares.
A gas leak tragedy with one Chinese boy, the world media are concerned.
American lives really dont worth much these days.

SCMP is a Chinese paper.

I know this is very very very hard to believe but they actually care about the welfare of their own people and that's why they write stories like this. Not all Chinese are mindless robots who only publish stories about happy bunnies and rainbows.


is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group
 
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As a Hui muslim and as common practice, he called a local religious leader to come and pray for the son. Only after much latter, that he realized something is seriously wrong that he seek emergency help.
a question , What for?
that's very strange practice . he believe his son in shock after seeing his mother fall and call a religious figure !!!
 
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There is probably a lesson here. Why the father, mother and others could not tell there is a gas leak is unexplained, and also why the mother and son got sick and the father did not? It might has to do with which part of the house they were in.
the question is it was Gas Leak or CO poisoning
Here in Iran we add additive to Gas that their distinctive smell can't be mistaken if there is any leak to the gases that are send to the houses but if its CO well its colorless , odorless , tasteless and wonder if you don't do that ? or it was a Carbon Monoxide poisoning not a gas leak, they are very different for treating gas leak problems its enough to close the gas , open windows and if the patient wont breath by himself assist him , for CO poisoning , the problem is a cellular level , you must do the previous steps but you need oxygen probably high pressure oxygen as CO has 250 time more affinity than oxygen to Hemoglobin

and different people have different tolerance to co poisoning

Toddler’s death raises new questions about human costs of China’s zero-Covid measures​

I say depend on how many live saved compared to how many lost
 
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They said their investigation showed that a call for an ambulance got through at 12.18pm, but the ambulance had not been dispatched until 1.44pm
It's callousness/laziness from the hospital authorities.
How does this relate to zero covid?
 
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a question , What for?
that's very strange practice . he believe his son in shock after seeing his mother fall and call a religious figure !!!
I guess because praying is believed to have calming effect.

the question is it was Gas Leak or CO poisoning
Here in Iran we add additive to Gas that their distinctive smell can't be mistaken if there is any leak to the gases that are send to the houses but if its CO well its colorless , odorless , tasteless and wonder if you don't do that ? or it was a Carbon Monoxide poisoning not a gas leak, they are very different for treating gas leak problems its enough to close the gas , open windows and if the patient wont breath by himself assist him , for CO poisoning , the problem is a cellular level , you must do the previous steps but you need oxygen probably high pressure oxygen as CO has 250 time more affinity than oxygen to Hemoglobin

and different people have different tolerance to co poisoning

I say depend on how many live saved compared to how many lost
The news mentioned valve used in stove, so it should be natural gas. Natural gas leak could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. It is possible that the leak is small and have different concentration around different area. That could be the reason why it is not noticed.
 
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The news mentioned valve used in stove, so it should be natural gas. Natural gas leak could lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. It is possible that the leak is small and have different concentration around different area. That could be the reason why it is not noticed.
gas leak , usually don't cause CO poisoning they just suffocate you , if the gas burn but not completely then instead of CO2 it produce CO that lead to CO poisoning
here when we sea CO poisoning if its not an door fire there is two situation , a clogged chimney or one which is not standard here the chimney must be straight and with no oblique or horizontal line and only acceptable cap is the H Cowl every other model is not as effective in removing poisonous gases from home
the other situation that result in poisoning is in cold weather some people go into a room at night and use these devices as heating sources .
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%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%82-%DA%AF%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%B2%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C-%D8%A8%D8%B2%D8%B1%DA%AF-%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%B4%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%87-%DA%A9%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%87-%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%BE%D9%84%D9%88%D9%BE%D8%B2-%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%81%DB%8C%D9%84%DB%8C.jpg


if the room is not well ventilated the result is ugly
 
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  • Anguished father says his son was dying from gas poisoning while he pleaded with local authorities for help
  • Three-year-old’s death is latest in string of heart-wrenching cases where urgent treatments were denied due to Covid protocols
The death of a three-year-old boy in a district under lockdown in the city of Lanzhou has sparked fresh anger about the human cost of China’s strict zero-Covid-19 policy. The measures, which have included erratic and lengthy lockdowns, have been linked to a series of deaths across the country.

The death, which happened on Tuesday in the capital of the northwestern province of Gansu, came to light after the father made a series of online posts on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

Tuo Shilei wrote that the drama began around noon when he had discovered his wife unconscious in their home. He tried to call an ambulance while trying to save her and after about 20 minutes, Tuo was able to resuscitate her.

Soon after, Tuo discovered that their son was lying on a bed unconscious.

After unsuccessfully attempting to use the same emergency procedure to revive the boy, Tuo said he tried several times to call for ambulances, the police and his community centre but was unable to get help.
An ambulance that had been dispatched 40 minutes earlier for his wife had still not arrived.

With the help of some neighbours, Tuo was able to climb over a compound barrier and then tried to seek help at a nearby checkpoint, but was refused and told to continue calling for an ambulance.

“At that time my kid was still breathing,” Tuo wrote on Weibo.
Finally, Tuo was able to find a taxi with help from police and residents.

About 10 minutes later, Tuo and his son arrived at a hospital, but it was too late. The boy was pronounced dead at 3pm, according to a report by Caixin. His wife was later treated at the same hospital and is in stable condition.

“If my kid could have been sent to the hospital earlier, he might have been saved,” Tuo said on Weibo.

As of Wednesday evening, Tuo said the local authorities had not contacted him. “I hope the community can give me a direct response. Why did they not let me go into an emergency centre? Why did they ask me to wait for the senior officials to be notified?” he asked.
In recent weeks, Lanzhou has seen a Covid-19 flare-up, and the family’s home is within a locked down area. On Tuesday, the city did not log any positive cases, but did record 51 asymptomatic infections, 29 of which were in Qilihe district, where the family lives.

In a statement on Tuesday, the local police said that “improper use of a liquefied gas stove has caused the death by carbon monoxide poisoning”.
In their latest statement on Thursday, Lanzhou authorities conceded the death had exposed “poor handling of the incident, weak emergency response capabilities and a rigid work style”, but did not admit any wrongdoing. An investigation was continuing, they said.

They said their investigation showed that a call for an ambulance got through at 12.18pm, but the ambulance had not been dispatched until 1.44pm, and that medical staff had tried to help Tuo online.

On Tuesday, Lanzhou authorities said that local officials should not oversimplify procedures and should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach to pandemic control, adding their attitudes should not be blunt and indifferent, a local party newspaper reported.
The boy’s death has sparked another round of online debate about the hefty cost of China’s stringent zero-Covid policy, and the pressure local officials are under to contain the highly infectious disease.

“Under pandemic controls, it is difficult to leave the home and the community. Even when you finally reach the hospital, it’s hard to get in without various nucleic acid requirements,” wrote one Weibo user.

“The epidemic outbreak has made it difficult to seek medical treatment numerous times … It’s really a repeated lesson [unlearned],” said another user.
The tragedy has also reignited public fear and anger about a string of deaths earlier this year that happened in other cities that were under lockdown.
In March, Zhou Shengni, a nurse at Shanghai East Hospital, went to her own hospital for help while struggling to breathe after an asthma attack. She died after being turned away because the emergency department was closed for disinfection.
In April, while Shanghai was placed under a two-month lockdown, Chen Shunping, a 71-year-old violinist, suffered from acute pancreatitis. Two hospitals refused to admit the man due to Covid-19 restrictions or closures. That night, Chen committed suicide by jumping from his residential building because he “could not stand the pain”, according to a note he left for his family.
Earlier in January, when Xian in central Shaanxi province was battling an outbreak, two pregnant women lost their babies after coronavirus-related restrictions delayed their treatment.
Both were kept waiting despite bleeding, and were then refused entry to the hospitals because they did not have valid Covid-19 test results, or because they lived in a “closed-loop management area”. By the time they were finally admitted, they had already lost their babies.
Xian has sacked or suspended several staff at the hospitals, and has since revised its Covid-19 rules to allow healthcare facilities to provide “green lanes” to pregnant women and patients with critical illnesses. Residential compounds have reportedly started to keep records of pregnant women.

Xinlu Liang
Xinlu Liang

Nov 11, 12k dead. Nobody will report this, silently floating around. 90k dead since Shanghai lockdown. Let this sink into your lil woke brain.
Screenshot_20221124_095550_com.android.chrome.jpg
 
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SCMP is a Chinese paper.

I know this is very very very hard to believe but they actually care about the welfare of their own people and that's why they write stories like this. Not all Chinese are mindless robots who only publish stories about happy bunnies and rainbows.


is a Hong Kong-based English-language newspaper owned by Alibaba Group
You been here long enough. I dont think you need an expert to tell you SCMP is an anti-China media. So desperate of you trying to omit those points. What cheap move are u going to use later?

And you know Jack Ma do not have the best r/s with CPC.
 
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You been here long enough. I dont think you need an expert to tell you SCMP is an anti-China media. So desperate of you trying to omit those points. What cheap move are u going to use later?

And you know Jack Ma do not have the best r/s with CPC.

Ah yes one in a long string of sites blocked by the Great firewall to protect the ever sensitive eyes of the Chinese public.


blockedinchina.png



pdfblocked.png
 
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Ah yes one in a long string of sites blocked by the Great firewall to protect the ever sensitive eyes of the Chinese public.


View attachment 899953


View attachment 899955
LOL.. SCMP is based in HK, why are u talking about China? Westerner BS about no media free media and CPC will not tolerate media freedom in HK are all lies. The fact SCMP are allowed to exist and continue spit shxt about China prove the freedom of media promise by CPC to HK.

Try harder to spit your lies against China :enjoy:
 
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