Man suffers as kin look away
By Saladin Xu |
August 17, 2010, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
LYING on a cane chair under the scorching sun, the man, or the "bag of bones", waits outside his home, possibly dying from severe tuberculosis but still begging for forgiveness from his family who have turned their back on him.
The man, Chang, has been lying on the cane chair day and night for more than 20 days at the complex, where he used to live, along Ganquan Road in Putuo District.
Wearing a dirty short-sleeved shirt and some tattered rags to cover his "private parts", he is too weak to move. He just stares at people while "begging" for food.
To make matters worse, his incontinence means he reeks of numbing body odor.
But the "homeless" man, who looks between 45 to 50 years old, actually has a family living in the complex. "The man has a daughter, a mother and three siblings," said a resident surnamed Ji.
The daughter now lives with her mother, who divorced Chang years ago, because of his gambling habits.
Family members would hang up the phone when residents called. The neighborhood committee says it "can't take him to hospital without permission from his family" since it can't afford the medical expenses.
"People make mistakes but how can a family abandon one of its own?" asked another resident surnamed Zhuang.
The man, Chang, has been lying on the cane chair day and night for more than 20 days at the complex, where he used to live, along Ganquan Road in Putuo District.
Wearing a dirty short-sleeved shirt and some tattered rags to cover his "private parts", he is too weak to move. He just stares at people while "begging" for food.
To make matters worse, his incontinence means he reeks of numbing body odor.
But the "homeless" man, who looks between 45 to 50 years old, actually has a family living in the complex. "The man has a daughter, a mother and three siblings," said a resident surnamed Ji.
The daughter now lives with her mother, who divorced Chang years ago, because of his gambling habits.
Family members would hang up the phone when residents called. The neighborhood committee says it "can't take him to hospital without permission from his family" since it can't afford the medical expenses.
"People make mistakes but how can a family abandon one of its own?" asked another resident surnamed Zhuang.
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