A woman in her seventies in Xingtang County has cared for her vegetative husband at his sickbed for 10 years
In the early morning, sunlight shone into a single-story house in Xingtang County. Li Qingliang, 74, sat in a wheelchair with a blank stare, instinctively looking toward his wife. Seeing her husband's glance, Yang Rongxiu quickly put down the work in her hands and carefully combed his hair. Ever since Li Qingliang became a vegetative patient 10 years ago due to a cerebral infarction, this scene has been frozen in time in this home for ten years.
Yang Rongxiu is 75 this year, one year older than Li Qingliang, and the two have spent 53 years together. Before retirement, Li Qingliang was a teacher, while Yang Rongxiu farmed at home. In August 1996, Li Qingliang suffered a sudden cerebral infarction and was hospitalized for more than a month before recovering; this accident unexpectedly planted the seeds of future misfortune. In May 2007, Li Qingliang again fell into a coma due to a cerebral infarction. Although his life was saved through emergency treatment, he became a vegetative patient with no expression or consciousness from then on!
Li Qingliang cannot move or speak. Every morning when he gets up, Li Qingliang urinates and defecates, and Yang Rongxiu changes him into fresh clothes. For this reason, the clothes and bedding she has to wash every day pile up higher than a stool. Li Qingliang weighs more than 170 jin, and every time she wipes away excrement and changes his clothes, Yang Rongxiu has to use all her strength to carry her husband onto a chair.
The doctor said that a patient lying still for a long time will develop bedsores, so Yang Rongxiu turns her husband over every few hours. At night, in order not to sleep too deeply, Yang Rongxiu desperately drinks water before bed to make sure she can get up in the middle of the night. Now Yang Rongxiu wakes up on time whenever the hour comes. For a period, her husband had difficulty defecating due to an enlarged prostate, so Yang Rongxiu learned enemas, catheterization and massage. Neighbors all say she has become half a doctor.
Yang Rongxiu's meticulous care finally brought about an improvement in her husband's condition. Starting 4 years ago, every time Yang Rongxiu fed him, Li Qingliang would move his eyes and the corners of his mouth would curl up slightly. This discovery made Yang Rongxiu wild with joy. Remembering that her husband used to enjoy listening to opera, she specially bought an opera player for him to listen to opera, and in her spare time she would also sing, read the news and chat to him. Now ten years have passed, and their children no longer hold out hope for Li Qingliang's illness, but Yang Rongxiu has never given up. Yang Rongxiu said: "I am just like before when he was not sick, accompanying him every day. When he wakes up, I want him to see me at first glance. If he cannot wake up, I also want him to live a few more years!" (Reporter Zhao Yuanjun)