Poverty, lack of information fatal for Chinese woman, baby

BEIJING — They might have had a Christmas baby.

But things went terribly wrong the day before Thanksgiving.

It started with a bad cough. Li Liyun, a 22-year-old migrant worker, tried to ignore it because she couldn't afford medicine. She certainly couldn't afford a prenatal checkup. She and her partner, Xiao Zhijun, were so broke that they sometimes went for three days without food before refilling again with a bowl of rice and cabbage soup.

When Li had trouble breathing, Xiao rushed her to a clinic, which transferred her to a nearby hospital. There doctors said Li was suffering from severe pneumonia and that the only way to save her and her unborn child was to perform an emergency cesarean. But Xiao refused to sign the release form, believing that the procedure was unnecessary and that the doctors only wanted to charge him for an expensive operation.

About five hours after arriving at the hospital, both mother and child were dead.

The tragedy, which sparked widespread outrage, cast new light on the plight of China's growing underclass and the dearth of social services. But it also revealed how distrust, fear and superstition can prove deadly in the world's most populous nation.

"The bigger picture behind this tragedy is a society that is seriously lacking in mutual trust and compassion," said Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing lawyer who is not involved in the case.

Xiao says Li was not yet full term and that the hospital gave her drugs that caused her to go into premature labor so he could be swindled.

"They are murderers who are trying to pin the killing on me," Xiao said. "My only fault is that I have no money."

Lacking professional medical care, the couple had depended on some dubious counsel. A street vendor, for instance, had told Xiao that his baby wasn't due until the end of December. A fortune teller had predicted an untimely end for Li and the child. Then doctors whom he distrusted were pressuring him to allow them to cut her open.

His mind was a blur when he heard, first, that the fetal heart had given out. Then that the mother had stopped breathing.

"We offered to foot the $1,300 bill to save two lives," said He Weishan, a man who was visiting the hospital with his pregnant wife. "He didn't want the money. He just froze. He really didn't believe his wife was ready for labor."