‘Final gift’: Widow of Chinese Covid-19 whistleblower doctor gives birth
Fu Xuejie shared her baby boy’s image on instant messaging app WeChat on Friday and described the newborn as the “final gift” from her late husband.
The widow of Li Wenliang, the 34-year-old whistleblower doctor from Wuhan who raised the alarm about Covid-19 in China last year, has delivered their baby. Li died from coronavirus in February, his wife Fu Xuejie was pregnant with their second child.
Fu Xuejie shared the baby boy’s image on instant messaging app WeChat on Friday and described the newborn as the “final gift” from her late husband.
Li, who worked as an ophthalmologist at the Wuhan central hospital, was arrested by Chinese authorities for spreading rumours. He was trying to sound an alarm about Covid-19 situation in the country which quickly assumed the shape of a pandemic.
On December 30, Li chanced upon a test result of a patient who had been admitted to his hospital with a new, unidentified disease. He shared the information on a private WeChat group with seven other friends, saying that from the results it looked like SARS - an epidemic which killed hundreds in China in 2002-03.
Li later said he only wanted to warn friends about the disease but his post went viral.
The doctor and his friends were soon summoned by the Wuhan police for spreading rumours and were forced to sign a confession. After his release,Li he went back to the hospital and started working but contracted Covid-19 from a patient.
Li was hospitalised on January 12 and in the following days, his condition deteriorated. He was admitted to the intensive care unit and tested positive for Covid-19, he subsequently lost his life.
The virus outbreak that started from China has affected almost every country in the world with over 7 million people infected and more than 4 lakh people killed by the deadly contagion.