The widow of Dr. Li Wenliang, the Chinese doctor and coronavirus whistleblower has given birth to their son on Friday, June 12, four months after his death, local media reported.
Deeply affected by her husband’s demise, Fu Xuejie was wracked with grief and suffered from low blood pressure and bleeding, Lizhi News reported.
She had to be temporarily hospitalised to protect her unborn child. She then returned to her mother’s home in Zaoyang city when her condition stabilized and gave birth there.
“Are you seeing this in heaven? The last gift you gave me was born today. I will love and take care of him,” Ms. Fu wrote on Chinese messaging app WeChat, according to Lizhi News.
Dr. Li was working as an ophthalmologist in the virus epicentre city of Wuhan, China when he observed patients with symptoms similar to the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The 34-year-old sent out a warning to colleagues on December 30, but was later among eight summoned by police for “rumour-mongering”, along with eight other whistleblowers.
Dr. Li said he was reprimanded for spreading “illegal and false” information and was told to sign a letter accusing him of making “false comments” that had “severely disturbed the social order”.
He later on contracted the disease while treating an infected patient and eventually died of the virus in early February.
Ms. Fu reportedly described Dr. Li as a gentle husband and father. Her family had to initially hide the news of his death from their other son by telling him his father was overseas, she added.
Dr. Li’s death sparked grief and outrage on Chinese social media, where netizens hailed him as a martyr.
“He is a hero who warned others with his life,” one user, an orthopaedic surgeon, had written on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
To date, the number of COVID-19 cases in mainland China stands at 83,064, while the death toll is 4,634.
More than 7.52 million people have been reported to be infected globally and 420,383 have died, according to a Reuters tally on Friday.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019. (Source: CNA)