Doctors in Liu ‘rescue’ amid calls for freedom

A CHINESE hospital said yesterday it was still scrambling to save terminally ill Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, fuelling fears that he could die without getting the freedom urged by foreign governments.

The health of the prominent 61-year-old democracy advocate has deteriorated since authorities revealed last month that he had been transferred from prison to a hospital due to late-stage liver cancer. But Chinese authorities have ignored calls by international human rights groups, Western governments and local activists to grant Liu’s wish to be treated abroad.

A day after reporting that Liu was in a critical condition, the First Hospital of China Medical University in the northeastern city of Shenyang said yesterday that the patient was “still in active rescue”.

Liu has an abdominal infection, organ dysfunction and he went into septic shock, the hospital said in a statement on its website. He is undergoing kidney dialysis, and is getting antiinfection and organ function support therapy.

The pessimistic reports from the hospital came after foreign doctors who visited Liu over the weekend concluded that it was safe to transport him to another country, which contradicted Chinese medical experts.

A British Embassy spokeswoman said London expressed “serious concern at the treatment of Liu Xiaobo by the Chinese authorities” and called on officials to lift all restrictions on him and let him choose where to get medical treatment. The United States has also urged Beijing to grant him full parole.

If he dies, Liu would become the first Nobel Peace Prize laureate to die in custody since German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who passed away in a hospital while held by the Nazis in 1938.