Wuhan mother who lost daughter early in coronavirus pandemic is still under surveillance three years later – BBC News 中文

However, as most of China began to put the epidemic aside and try to move forward. Yang Min told the BBC that her life could not go on.

She told reporters she would not stop until “justice” was found for her daughter. She believes that if the government had issued a clear warning message to the people at the beginning of the outbreak, her daughter would not have died.

Yuxi was admitted to the hospital on the eve of the 2020 Chinese New Year, when the whole city was preparing for the Lunar New Year celebrations. Large family gatherings, streets packed with shoppers, and Wuhan is blanketed in festive red.

Yang Min said in an interview with Chinese writer Murong Xuecun that Yuxi’s illness did not affect the festive atmosphere at home. Because they all firmly believe that their daughter will recover.

However, Yang Min didn’t know at the time that a new virus was spreading in the city and in the hospital.

In December 2019, reports emerged in the city of a “mysterious disease” believed to be linked to the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan. Wuhan officials assured citizens at the time that there was “no clear evidence” that the virus was spreading from person to person. However, the number of cases began to rise rapidly.

By January 19, 2020, when Yuxi developed a fever, nearly 200 cases had been reported in Wuhan. When the government announced the lockdown of the city of 11 million people on Jan. 23, doctors told Yang Min that if Yuxi didn’t reduce her fever soon, she would not be able to survive.

Yang Min said that in the next few days, her daughter did not stop coughing, her breathing became more and more short of breath, and she vomited blood. Ms. Yang, who took care of her day and night, was also infected with the virus.

On February 6, 2020, Yuxi died alone in the hospital bed after staying in the intensive care unit for 5 days. Yang Min has been fighting the virus in the isolation ward, and was not informed that her daughter had left until 2 weeks later.

Yang Min explained to Murong Xuecun in exile in Australia what happened in her home. Murong Xuecun recorded his and others’ experience of the new crown in the book “Forbidden City: Voices from Wuhan”: a story from Wuhan, the origin of the outbreak of the new crown.

However, when Ms Yang spoke to the BBC, she told me that everything was so painful that she could no longer recount what happened. But she is willing to talk about her daughter, and the life she has led since.

“My daughter is not special, but she is my daughter. I miss her very much, this is what being a mother is.” Yang Min said with tears.

“She’s just like any other kid. Sometimes she’s naughty, sometimes she doesn’t listen to me, and we fight sometimes.”

Yang Min also explained that although she didn’t know what the virus was at the time, the medical staff in Wuhan began to suspect that something was wrong.

For example, Mr. Chen (pseudonym) said that when the outbreak broke out in Wuhan, he was working in a community health center in the city. He had been working for more than a decade and heard about a new virus from a colleague. This was heard long before the 34-year-old whistleblower Dr Li Wenliang who died of the disease was reprimanded by the authorities for “spreading rumours”.

Mr Chan explained to the BBC that at the time they all knew it was a new virus, but that was all: “We were all scared because we didn’t know what it was…It’s unbelievable now that anyone Didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

In addition, although the closure of Wuhan was touted by the Chinese government as a means of success. But the death toll in the first few weeks (before the lockdown) remains unknown.

Louise, a Wuhan resident in her 20s who works in the tech industry, said her partner stayed in Wuhan during the lockdown and didn’t leave until cases started to decline. She told the BBC that the situation was dire at first: “There were videos of bodies lying on the hospital floor, and our food was gone. We were worried about being abandoned.”

It wasn’t until early April — during the Tomb-sweeping Day festival, when Chinese mourn the dead with white paper wreaths — that she realized how badly the city had been hit by the virus.

There were white paper wreaths all over the city, and the chrysanthemums of choice for mourners were sold out.

“No one I know has died from this virus, but I was shocked by this scene,” Louise told reporters.

Yang Min is one of tens of millions of Wuhan citizens who mourned their family members who died of illness on Qingming Festival three years ago.

She recounted to reporters that when China reopened this year, it was hit by a new wave of infections, and she experienced renewed fear and pain.

But this time her mother-in-law, who is in her 80s, was also infected.

“I worry that she may die at any moment,” Yang Min said. She added, “Three years ago I didn’t do anything, or I regretted not doing something. I didn’t know what I know now, but I did it. I was afraid that I would accidentally hurt her…I checked her every hour. blood oxygen levels,” she said.

In addition, Yang Min himself was diagnosed for the second time. However, she is not very worried about her health: “After experiencing these things, death is nothing. I don’t want to experience the experience of losing a loved one again. If I can, I am willing to die instead of my mother-in-law.”

Yang Min’s mother-in-law survived and recovered before the Chinese New Year in late January. However, she wasn’t in any mood to celebrate.

Since telling the media about her daughter’s death from COVID-19, Yang Min said she has been closely monitored. Because she once protested in the streets and tried to file a lawsuit against the government. She said she wanted “an explanation” from the authorities for her daughter’s death.

But China is a one-party state that does not tolerate demonstrations that challenge the leadership. Local media and the Internet are heavily censored, and many foreign outlets are banned in the country. Citizens who criticize the country to foreign media also often face reprisals — ranging from warnings to detention. In addition, with high technology, China has also established an extensive surveillance network, monitoring mobile devices and tracking technology of users’ footprints.

Ms Yang told the BBC: “There are people at my door, and people follow me everywhere I go. I am not in the mood for the New Year, because I am worried that going to parties will affect my friends, so I rarely go out.”

In Wuhan, it is customary for people on the first day of the Lunar New Year to go to their homes to pay respects to their relatives who died in the past year, and to light a stick of incense to mourn the deceased.

“Chrysanthemums are sold everywhere, especially on Lunar New Year’s Eve,” Yang Min told reporters. She added that it brought back memories of the traumatic past. She brought two baskets of chrysanthemums to her daughter’s grave.

For Yang Min, the end of the pandemic does not mean her life is “back to normal”. Especially now that there is a camera at the door of the house, monitoring the entry and exit of her house every day.

“I’m not afraid of them,” Yang Min said, “I’ve already lost the most precious thing in my life, what else can they take away from me?”

(For identity protection,in the textExcept Yang MinBoth are pseudonyms。）