The story of a 17-year-old girl who was forced to undergo a “fake surgery” at Shaanxi’s Ankang Xing’an Hospital has gone viral on Chinese social media.

One of the netizens to break the story on social media is the Weibo user @QinguanSihai (@秦观四海, 90,000+ followers), who posted about the incident on October 6.

According to the post, the incident occurred on October 4 when a young woman named Lu went online to seek medical attention because she was not feeling well. Since there was an available spot for a medical consultation at the private Ankang Xing’an Hospital, Lu went to see a doctor there.

While she was at the hospital in the city of Ankang, the woman allegedly was directly taken to the operating room and placed on the operating table after a short consultation; not for a medical examination, but for surgery.

The girl initially thought she was undergoing a routine medical check. As the surgery was already underway, the doctor stopped to let Lu sign some papers and then asked her if she could gather the money to pay for her medical procedure. When Lu protested and demanded to get off the surgery table, the doctor warned her that she was losing blood and that interrupting the procedure would be life-threatening.

Lying on the operating table, Lu called some of her friends to gather the money, all the while being pressured by the doctor that the money she had (1200 yuan/$185) was not enough to cover for the costs of surgery – which was still ongoing. The doctor allegedly even told Lu to get more money via the Alipay ‘Huabei’ loaning app.

Lu’s parents, who were contacted by concerned friends, soon showed up at the hospital as the doctor hastily ended the surgery. The parents, who were furious to discover their underage daughter had undergone a medical procedure without their consent, became even more upset when they later found out that Lu had undergone surgery to remove cervical polyps, while Lu’s medical reports showed that she actually had no cervical polyps at all. No reason could be found for their healthy daughter to have been operated on her cervix.

After Lu’s story went viral on social media, local authorities quickly started an investigation into the matter and soon confirmed that the story was real. An initial statement said that Angkang Xing’an Hospital is at fault for performing surgery on a minor without the consent of a guardian or parent. It was also recognized that the hospital has committed serious ethical violations. The hospital, located on 78 Bashan Middle Road (巴山中路), is now temporarily closed, and the doctor in question has since been fired.

Many Chinese netizens are angered about the incident, calling private hospitals such as Ankang Xing’an a “disgrace” to China’s healthcare industry.

This is by no means the first time that malpractices at Chinese local hospitals or clinics trigger online controversy. Various incidents that previously went viral show how some clinics put commercial interests above the health of their patients, and how some doctors think they can get away with abusing and scamming their patients.

In 2016, the death of the 21-year-old cancer patient Wei Zexi (魏则西) sparked online outrage. Wei Zexi, who shared his medical experiences on social media, spent 200,000 RMB to receive contested form of immunotherapy at the Beijing Armed Police Corps No. 2 Hospital (武警二院). The treatment, that was promoted on China’s leading search engine Baidu, was actually completely ineffective and the advertising for it was false.

By now, one hashtag relating to the Ankang incident has received over 270 million views on Weibo (#官方通报无病女生被推上手术台#), with other relating hashtags also circulating on social media (#家属回应无病女学生被迫手术#, #无病女学生被推上手术台涉事医院停业整顿#).

“This can’t be a real hospital, right?!” some worried netizens write, with others expressing the hopes that the medical institution will be severely punished for their wrongdoings.

By Manya Koetse

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A fight between visitors of the Beijing Wildlife Park has gone viral on Chinese social media. The altercation happened on the afternoon of August 7 at the Wildlife Park in the Daxing District.

According to the WeChat account of the Beijing Wildlife Park, the fight erupted after two visitors had a dispute over something trivial. Their clash initially was only a verbal one, but soon turned physical.

A big fight that occurred at the Beijing Wildlife Park yesterday apparently set a very bad example for the animals witnessing it. According to the park, the animals imitated these wild humans and had their own altercation at night. (Video via Beijing Life/北京生活） pic.twitter.com/ldgn63ya6g

— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) August 8, 2021

A video of the incident published on Weibo by Beijing Life (@北京生活) shows that at least six people were involved in the fight, which included hair pulling, kicking, tearing clothes, and slapping. Even the people who were already lying on the ground still continued wrestling and kicking.

Not just children stood by during the altercation, many animals also witnessed the dramatic fight. Some netizens said the incident took place near the gorilla area.

Although local security guards were able to calm the fighting parties down and settle the matter, the violent altercation allegedly had some unexpected consequences.

According to the park statement (#园方回应动物效仿游客打架#), this was the first time for the park animals to witness such a fight between humans. For some animals, the event apparently left such an impression that they also started fighting together that same night.

The Beijing Wildlife conveyed how the humans had set a bad example for the animals, writing that the animals imitated them and that their fighting was “out of control.”

The park also writes that zookeepers stepped in, letting the animals know that “fighting is bad”, “really bad.”

By Manya Koetse (@manyapan) and Miranda Barnes

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