At around 14:00 on January 8, a traffic accident occurred on the road from Lingjia to Fulong in Neijiang City, Sichuan Province. A father and son riding a motorcycle collided with a large bus, resulting in one death and one injury. This was originally an ordinary traffic accident, but according to the family of the deceased, after the accident, the deceased, Zhang Houming, was not dead at the scene, yet the medical team that arrived issued a death notice and directly took him to the local funeral home for refrigeration. Five hours after the accident, the family realized he was still alive at the funeral home and called 120 again for help. After more than an hour of emergency treatment at another hospital, Zhang Houming eventually died.
Additionally, in the early morning of January 9, local police dispatched a large number of riot police who forcibly removed Zhang Houming's body from the hospital. Despite attempts by the Zhang family to prevent this, they were unsuccessful, and there was a brief physical altercation. Afterwards, the Neijiang municipal government sent an accident handling team composed of units such as the local Public Security Bureau, Health Bureau, and Justice Bureau to negotiate with the family. As of the time of reporting, no consensus had been reached.
The ambulance arrived two hours after the accident
Zhang Houming was 46 years old and lived in the urban area of Neijiang. He usually worked on a construction site in Lingjia Town under the jurisdiction of Neijiang City along with his son. At about 14:00 on January 8, after finishing work, he and his son rode their motorcycle back home. However, about three or four kilometers away from the construction site, they collided with an intercity bus.
Two hours after the accident, the 120 emergency ambulance from Neijiang Central Hospital arrived at the scene. The hospital later explained that the ambulance arrived late due to "serious traffic jams on the highway."
Unzipping the body bag revealed "a heartbeat"
After the 120 ambulance returned to the hospital, Zhang Houming's younger brother, Zhang Houbin, did not see his brother at the hospital when asking the doctors, who shook their heads to indicate, "He's gone." Someone then suggested checking at the Qinglongshan Funeral Home in Neijiang. Five hours after the accident, the family rushed to the funeral home. Zhang Houbin said that the staff at the funeral home initially claimed no one had been brought in. About fifteen minutes later, a Santana sedan and a minibus entered one after the other. When asked again, the staff replied: "Someone was brought in."
It was indeed Zhang Houming, who by then had already been placed in a body bag inside a refrigerated coffin. The staff unzipped the body bag for the family to identify him. "My father noticed my brother's face was bright red," Zhang Houbin said, and upon trying to feel for a pulse, found there was one! Further checking his chest revealed a heartbeat! The family immediately carried Zhang Houming out and dialed 120 again. At 20:14 on January 8, approximately one hour after being "rescued" from the refrigerated coffin, the Sixth People's Hospital of Neijiang issued a death notice for Zhang Houming.
Following the incident, the Neijiang municipal government sent a deputy secretary-general and a government lawyer to negotiate with the family again. Regarding Zhang Houming's "revival from death," the secretary-general explained that it was likely that Zhang was in a coma when the doctor checked him, but during transportation, "after being jostled, he regained consciousness." Therefore, he believed that the hospital staff may have been "negligent" during the examination, but there was absolutely no criminal liability.