Core Tip: Data shows that China has at least 450,000 long-term bedridden patients. More than half of them die from bedsores infections. Ms. Yang Qingzhi from Jiaozuo City became a high-level paraplegic when she was only 30 years old and has been bedridden for 50 years. With the care of her husband and five children, she has never developed bedsores. Now, except for slightly poorer hearing, her thinking is as agile, her mind as clear, and her speech as articulate as when she was young. Some doctors said that the filial piety of Ms. Yang's children has created a medical miracle and provided an example for the care of paralyzed patients.
Chief Reporter Zhang Hongfei and Jiaozuo Daily reporter Wang Yan contributed to this article with text and images.
Eldest Son:
During school days, during the break exercises, brothers and sisters had to run home to help their mother turn over.
On the evening of April 2nd, the door of Room 11 in the Fourth Orthopedic Department of the Central Hospital of Jiaozuo Coal Group opened, Ms. Yang Qingzhi's eyes lit up. Her eldest son Shang Jianzhong and daughter-in-law Liu Baorong appeared. Seeing her eldest son with his head full of gray hair, Ms. Yang Qingzhi tried hard to lift her upper body and stretch out her hand. Shang Jianzhong and his wife Liu Baorong quickly went forward to support her and let her lie down to talk.
Shang Jianzhong and his wife just drove back from Beijing to Jiaozuo specifically to visit their mother and pay respects to their father.
Ms. Yang Qingzhi and her husband originally worked in Fushun City, Liaoning Province. In the 1950s, they came to Henan to support the construction of the coal industry and were employed by the Provincial Coal Department. In 1962, the family moved from Zhengzhou to Jiaozuo.
Shang Jianzhong said that when his mother became a high-level paraplegic, he was 10 years old, his elder sister Shang Jing was 7, his younger sister Shang Juan was 4, his brother Shang Jianxin was 2, and his youngest sister Shang Yan was only 40 days old. Due to spinal epidural abscess compressing the central nervous system, 30-year-old Ms. Yang Qingzhi was forced to lie down on the bed since then.
"At that time, my father had to go to work while taking care of my mother." Shang Jianzhong said that before leaving home for school every day, he and his siblings would place a basin of clear water beside their mother's bed. During the break exercises at school, several of them would run home to help their mother turn over, change the water, change the diapers, and clean her body.
After graduating from junior high school, Shang Jianzhong found a job as an electrolysis worker at the aluminum factory. After working for a few years, he managed to switch jobs and learned to drive at his workplace because driving could allow him to travel frequently and receive subsidies. Every time he arrived at a place, he would buy eggs, fine grains, and fatty pork for his mother to extract oil. Shang Jianzhong understood that his paralyzed mother should eat more fine grains. Eating too much coarse grain would not only lack nutrition and easily cause bedsores but also lead to dry stools.
In 1985, Shang Jianzhong became a graduate student in the computer science department of Northwestern Polytechnical University. After graduation, he was assigned to work in Beijing. Shang Jianxin said, "My elder brother was a car driver who got admitted to graduate school, which was quite sensational at the time."
Shang Jianzhong said, "I just wanted to prove that our family wouldn't become inferior due to my mother being paralyzed. Speaking of taking care of my mother, it's my younger brother and sisters who did most of the work, especially my younger brother Jianxin."
Second Son:
Living together with a paralyzed mother is the first condition for dating.
Standing at 1.8 meters tall, Shang Jianxin has a handsome face and a personality like his father, very manly and responsible. There were many people who came to propose or introduce potential partners to him, and each time, Shang Jianxin would first declare that he had a paralyzed mother living with him. Those who hesitated or refused were dismissed. In 1985, Shang Jianxin married his bride, and his wife Wang Hong became the close little helper to her paralyzed mother-in-law upon entering the Shang family.
After graduating from university, Shang Jianxin entered the Jiaozuo municipal government. To increase family income and ensure the treatment and living expenses for his mother, he resigned from public office and ventured into business.
In 1998, Shang Jianxin's father passed away from exhaustion, leaving behind his beloved wife and children. As the chairman of a company and a standing member of the Jiaozuo Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, despite having many official duties and social engagements, Shang Jianxin still set a rule for himself: no matter what, his mother’s affairs always come first. Shang Jianxin said that he usually goes on business trips outside the city for only two to three days, and he tries to push other engagements onto others.
One day last December, after Shang Jianxin arrived in Zhengzhou by plane from Shenzhen, his phone rang. Shang Jianxin said that it was his mother calling, saying that the air mattress had lost its air. He immediately took a car and arrived home at 1 a.m. the next day. Upon checking carefully, it turned out that the tube on the air pump had fallen off.
Shang Jianxin said that after fixing the air tube, his heart was still pounding, so he decided to purchase a spare air mattress to keep at home for emergencies.
Mother:
These past 50 years,
I have always been growing together with my children.
There is such a photo in the Shang family: Ms. Yang Qingzhi, with her student hairstyle and wearing a student dress, stands gracefully, with a faint smile on her face, looking energetic.
Shang Jianzhong said that when his mother was young, she was efficient and capable in her work, and very organized and particular about her life. By today's standards, she was an idol in their hearts. "When my mother first returned home from the hospital, her mood was bad, and she cried all day. My father's unwavering love and the careful care of us siblings quickly helped her get out of her dark mood."
Shang Jianxin said that at that time, dinner time was the happiest moment for the whole family. After finishing housework and homework, the siblings would gather around their mother's bed and listen to the radio programs "Grandpa Sun Jingxiu tells stories" and "Little Trumpet" together with their mother.
"These past 50 years, I have always been growing together with my children," Ms. Yang Qingzhi said. After her husband passed away, her five children and their spouses continued to take good care of her life, helping her regain strength quickly. "Children are my hope for life and the power of life."
The neighbors of the Shang family sighed, saying that for decades, the Shang family has always been spotlessly clean, without any urine smell or moldy smell commonly found in homes with paralyzed patients, which is really not easy.
The eldest daughter Shang Jing said, "Mother's life is destined to be spent in bed. We want to make this home as warm as any other home, and make the mother lying in the sickbed as beautiful as healthy mothers everywhere." (Editor: SN005)