A Battle for the Truth

The world may have moved beyond medieval times, but many people still pay a price for telling the truth, standing up against evil forces, and upholding social justice. Chen Xiaolan, a doctor in east China's Shanghai, is one of them. For a decade, she has been debunking harmful medical devices, and had her own life derailed for doing so. But finally her dedication has been recognized and last year Chen was listed among the 10 people who touched the hearts of the Chinese people most in 2007.

Chen, now in her mid-50s, once had a peaceful life as an ordinary physiotherapist in a community hospital in Shanghai. In China, doctors are called "angels in white" and are respected for their sacred duty in saving people's lives. Life took an unexpected turn for Chen on a July day in 1997, when an old patient stepped into her office to ask her a question. The patient was put under light quantum blood therapy, a therapy used for cardiovascular diseases. The patient complained that the doctor imposed this therapy on him. The therapy is not only expensive but also very uncomfortable. After receiving laser treatment, he started trembling.

Chen felt strange about the story, and asked for a specification of the light quantum generator. The specification of the medical equipment described it as an advanced device that can lower blood viscosity and increase blood oxygen saturation. It is used for the treatment of diseases such as cerebral arteriosclerosis and cerebral thrombosis. She did not find any problem in the specifications.

But the patient's abnormal response to the therapy prompted her to examine the medical device carefully. Soon, she found the "ZWG-B2" printed on the box indicated the machine was a generator of ultraviolet rays rather than light quantum. Chen decided to simulate the effect of the ultraviolet rays on the liquid to be injected into patients' blood. She was astonished to find that after being exposed to the light, the liquid turned cloudy, producing harmful suspending solids. To understand the risks of the medical device better, Chen visited 23 patients that received the therapy and found nine of them deceased from kidney failure or lung problems, according to a report in Legal Daily, a Chinese newspaper. Chen tried to find the alleged inventor of the equipment, a professor that was said to work in the medical center of Fudan University, previously known as Shanghai Medical University, but learned from the school that such a professor did not exist. Chen realized that she was dealing with a medical fraud.

Getting into trouble

Chen first brought the fraud to the president of her hospital, who did not believe in her skepticism. Chen then reported the case to the local government and to the State Food and Drug Administration and other national government agencies in Beijing. After a careful investigation, on April 15, 1999, Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau announced the decision to ban the use of this harmful medical device in Shanghai. A national ban on the medical device came in 2005.

Chen won the battle, but it had cost her the job. The "ZWG-B2" was a lucrative revenue source for physicians in her hospital. According to the Shanghai Youth Daily, physicians prescribing the therapy could pocket about 17.5 percent of the income from the therapy. Although the ban of "ZWG-B2" saved patients in Shanghai tens of thousands of dollars, it cut into the income of her fellow physicians and her hospital was penalized. Chen found herself alienated at the hospital. The hospital closed the physical therapy department she worked in, and asked her to quit. Chen lost her job in 1998, one year after she had uncovered the fraudulent medical device, and half a year after the medical device was banned in Shanghai.

Nevertheless, Chen did not quit her battle against ineffective or harmful medical devices. As a doctor, Chen believes her mission is to save lives. She has traveled from place to place on her own money to find problems and report them. Chen's life has become turbulent, and she has even received threats from manufacturers of bogus medical devices. In the past decade, she has detected 20 harmful or bogus medical devices.

In June 2000, the Shanghai Municipal Health Bureau, Shanghai Bureau for Letters and Calls and a number of agencies made a public apology for the difficulties that she encountered in reporting problems and compensated Chen for her lost income. Chen was given another job, but was soon in trouble again for blowing the whistle on problematic medical practices. She was deprived of her professional title as a doctor and retired as a worker in 2002. Her pension and medical insurance were frozen.

Winning support

Chen's courageous battle against corruption and malpractices in the medical field has not only saved lives and money, but also prompted lawmakers to close loopholes in existing laws. She found the current Regulations for the Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices, which was adopted in 2000, inadequate. Under the law, once a device is registered, it is legal. The law has not stipulated what kind of problematic devices should be taken out of the market even if they are legally registered.

The State Food and Drug Administration began to amend medical device regulations in June 2006, and the draft of a new law was ready for public comments in September 2007, according to information on the agency's website. The draft law requires a strict review of registration specifications, holds manufacturers responsible for the safety and effectiveness of their devices and increases penalties for violations.

Over the years, Chen's story has been widely covered in the media. A report documenting Chen's battle against medical malpractices won a top literature award in China in late 2007. The report, titled the Angel in Battle, was written by Zhu Xiaojun, a professor at Zhejiang University of Science and Technology.

In early 2008, Chen herself also received a great honor. China Central Television (CCTV), the most influential TV network in China, listed Chen among the 10 persons that touched the hearts of the Chinese people most in 2007. Each year, the winners are selected according to votes from the audience and a panel of television hosts, academia and popular movie stars.

Other winners of the 2007 award included Qian Xuesen, a distinguished Chinese scientist; Meng Xiangbin who gave his life to save a drowning girl; Li Li, a handicapped woman who launched an education studio and website to help people; and Luo Yingzhen, the devoted wife of a courageous policeman who has painstakingly taken care of her husband who was seriously wounded in the line of duty.