A 38-year-old Chinese man has died following his wife’s intervention.
The man suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at home and was brought to a hospital for emergency treatment. After he was admitted to the intensive care unit in critical condition, doctors searched for the woman who had brought him to the hospital.
According to a doctor there, the man’s odds of surviving an operation were low, but without surgery, he would surely die. In China, a patient’s close relatives (including a spouse) can consent to medical operations on a patient’s behalf if the patient cannot make decisions themselves.
The woman who brought the man to the hospital, however, was not his wife but the mistress he shared a home with. His wife arrived at the hospital after the mistress left. Her husband, she said, had been unfaithful to her for over ten years, and he did not give her any financial support.
Rather than giving her consent, she turned down the costly operation and asked doctors to remove her husband’s life support instead.
