Medical Experts in Beijing Advise Recalcitrant "Falun Gong" Followers to Wake Up As Soon As Possible

By Zhang Heping and Zhang Jinsheng

As the struggle against "Falun Gong" intensifies, the National People's Congress, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate have successively made decisions on the strict punishment of cults, and given corresponding judicial explanations. These actions have caused the vast majority of "Falun Gong" practitioners, deceived by Li Hongzhi, to understand the situation and determine to make a clean break with Li Hongzhi and his "Falun Gong." However, a handful of them still cling to his erroneous ideas and remain impenitent, dreaming of curing their diseases by practicing "Falun Gong." As a result, their diseases have become worse, and some of them have even lost their lives.

On the afternoon of November 10, 1999, we went to several large hospitals in Beijing to conduct interviews. We found that medical experts are unanimous in warning sick "Falun Gong" practitioners to wake up and face reality.

Professor Jiang Yanrong, an expert in ophthalmology of the People's Hospital, was very busy, but he managed to spare time for an interview. He told us that in recent years he had treated many patients whose eye diseases had become worse because of practicing "Falun Gong" and refusing medical treatment. The eyesight of some of them was saved, due to prompt medical treatment, but some lost their eyesight as a result of trusting "Falun Gong" and delaying treatment. Professor Jiang gave an example: Li Degong is an old man from the countryside, whose retinas were severely damaged by heavy manual labor over a long period of time. If he had gone to hospital for prompt treatment, he could have saved his eyes. However, he believed that only by practicing "Falun Gong" could his eyesight be saved. As a result, he became blind in one eye.

Huang Chuangui, a leading cancer expert, is indignant at the fallacies preached by Li Hongzhi and his "Falun Gong." He said, ``From ancient times to the present, it has always been natural for a sick man to seek professional treatment. How can anyone believe that merely by practicing a certain kind of Qigong his ailments can be dispelled and disasters eliminated? `Falun Dafa' is an out-and-out heretical fallacy, which slights Chinese medicine, which has a history of several thousand years."

Soon after, an old woman came to Doctor Huang for treatment. He let her tell us her story. She said that she had begun to practice "Falun Gong" when she learned that she had cancer of the lung. However, her condition became worse and worse. She was frightened when she began to spit blood and was too weak to move. She then became Doctor Huang's patient. Now, as a result of treatment by Doctor Huang, her disease is under control.

Professor Xiang Linan of the Friendship Hospital is a noted pediatrician. She said that a major reason why people think that practicing ``Falun Gong" can cure their ailments is that they have been duped by Li Hongzhi through psychological suggestion. She said that efforts must be made to spread scientific knowledge, and children especially should be taught to respect science.

You Debao, a senior member of the Wangjing Hospital attached to the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that doctors regard curing diseases and saving patients as their sole purpose in life, and that only constant exploration can make medical science progress. He said it is piteous and distressing to see some people still refusing medical treatment. Many examples show that Li Hongzhi misleads people in ways that result in death to them. Why don't they believe in scientific truth? Why do they still cling to the heretical fallacies of "Falun Gong" so stubbornly? In the emergency room, Professor Luo Kan, the director of the internal medicine department and tutor of doctoral candidates, told us that about a year previously he and Zhang Ruilin, the deputy director of the emergency room, had received a patient in his forties. He was suffering from pneumonia and had refused to take any medicine for seven days. He was a "Falun Gong" practitioner. When he was brought to the hospital, he was dying, but still struggled against treatment, saying that he was experiencing suffering that one must undergo while practicing "Falun Gong." Recalling the scene, Professor Luo said agitatedly: "Our internal medicine department has absolute confidence that we can treat pneumonia successfully. But that man in the prime of life died right here! I was so angry that I told his family that they should sue whoever told him not to take medicine." Professor Luo tells this story to all of his patients who have been "Falun Gong" practitioners, to warn them that "Falun Gong" is an anti-science cult which can cause infinite harm to people.

(Excerpted from the Legal System Daily, November 11, 1999)