Left at home for six days: disabled Chinese boy dies after carer dad and brother are quarantined for coronavirus checks
- Father’s post to Weibo says teenager with cerebral palsy had no food, drink or personal hygiene care for nearly a week
- Local official says there was ‘no way we could have left a boy with cerebral palsy at home with nobody looking after him’
A disabled teenager in rural central China died after he was left at home for six days without care while his relatives were quarantined on suspicion of having the Wuhan coronavirus, Beijing Youth Daily reported on Thursday.
The 17-year-old, named Yan Cheng, had cerebral palsy, a severe motor disability that requires around-the-clock attention. He died in Hubei province on Wednesday, local government officials were quoted as saying. Authorities had launched an investigation, the report said.
Cheng, his 49-year-old father and his 11-year-old autistic brother travelled from Wuhan on January 17 to celebrate Lunar New Year in their ancestral village in Huahe township, Hongan county – about 150km (93 miles) from the central Chinese city where the coronavirus was first reported.
The father, Yan Xiaowen, developed fever three days later. He and Cheng’s younger brother were quarantined by authorities at a treatment facility on Friday, leaving Cheng at home without regular care, food or company. There was no official statement on the cause or circumstances of the teenager’s death.
Cheng’s mother committed suicide about a year after the birth of the younger brother, Yan was quoted as saying in a report on Wednesday by Damihexiaomi, a WeChat publishing platform that campaigns for families of children with autism and other conditions.
