(Minghui.org) A Fuxin City, Liaoning Province resident serving time for her faith in Falun Gong has remained in a coma in an intensive care unit after she suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in the prison.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is an ancient spiritual practice that has been persecuted by the Chinese communist regime since 1999.
When Ms. Zhang Yuhong’s family rushed to the hospital, prison guards kept them from visiting her and refused to answer why she was in such a serious condition. Instead, they blamed her family for not visiting her on a regular basis, which “caused her to become ill.”
Chinese prisons often deny Falun Gong practitioners’ family visits if they refuse to write statements to renounce their faith. Ms. Zhang's family was also prohibited from visiting her before her hospitalization.
Ms. Zhang’s doctor told her family that she had some injuries on her back, but the prison guards didn’t allow the doctor to provide the detailed diagnosis to them. They also said further medical treatments wouldn't be provided unless her family signed a waiver relieving the prison of liability should anything happen to her.
Ms. Zhang remains at the ICU without further treatment at the time of writing.
Ms. Zhang, in her 50s, was arrested on the evening of November 7, 2018. She was sentenced to four years by Taiping District Court in July 2019. The guards at Xindi Detention Center, where she was held since her arrest, blocked her from appealing the verdict because she refused to renounce Falun Gong.
The detention center guards waited until her appeals window expired before allowing her to file her appeal. Only after her family sought justice for her at the intermediate court did a judge agree to accept her case.
The Fuxin City Intermediate Court upheld her verdict in early September 2019, and she was transferred to Liaoning Province Women’s Prison on September 24.
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