Liu Xiaobo dies from liver cancer at 61
Liu Xiaobo died from liver cancer on Thursday, according to the Shenyang Bureau of Justice.
Liu, 61, died following severe multiple organ failure, the bureau said.
Top- notch medical teams had been assigned to treat him with advanced drugs and therapies at the First Hospital of China Medical University. They included a team led by Mao Yilei, a professor from the liver surgery department of Peking Union Medical College Hospital, and top cancer experts from the US and Germany.
Liu was put in intensive care since Monday. Liu was diagnosed with liver cancer on May 31.
On Wednesday, the hospital which had been treating him said in a notice that intubation was needed to help him breathe, but his family had refused to allow doctors to perform the procedure.
Cancer experts from Germany and the US joined the Chinese doctors in a consultation and visited Liu in the ward earlier this month at the request of Liu’s family members. The German and American doctors highly appreciated the treatment and therapeutic plans.
The German and American doctors said they could not think of a better alternative, and that the Chinese medical team was doing a great job.
Liu was sentenced to 11 years in jail on December 25, 2009, after a court in Beijing convicted him of trying to overthrow the government.
The Liaoning Prison Administrative Bureau announced on June 26 that Liu had been granted medical parole after being diagnosed with liver cancer during a routine physical check conducted by Liaoning’s Jinzhou Prison on May 31.
According to personal information recorded at the Jinzhou Prison, where Liu had been serving his sentence, he had hepatitis B before he was imprisoned. The prison gave him a physical examination once a year and had a doctor visit him every 15 days. The prison started checking him for hepatitis and tumors in 2012.
Born in 1955, Liu was a worker in his youth. He got his master’s degree in 1984 and began working as a teacher at Beijing Normal University. He obtained his PhD in 1988.