Hope lives on in the hospital behind bars

DOCTORS working at a unique hospital in Shanghai can rarely hope that a patient who is successfully treated will walk out into the sunshine. Their domain is Shanghai Prison General Hospital, the only one of its kind in the city prison system.

The hospital has a long history. It was founded in 1903 as a prison hospital on Ward Road in the International Settlement. A newer, larger replacement was established in 2007 on Fanrong Road in the Pudong New Area.

Besides ordinary departments, the 450-bed hospital has specialized sections for prisoners suffering from AIDS, tuberculosis, drug addiction and mental diseases. Its patients come from not only the prison but also from sister institutions, said Xie Xufeng, director of the hospital’s medical department.

Many young doctors who work in the hospital initially regard the patients as beasts shut in cages, but that impression fades as time passes and they treat what is certainly an unusual population of people suffering from poor health.

Inmates with treatable maladies remain in the prison hospital. Those suffering more complicated, severe diseases or needing specialized tests such as magnetic resonance imaging are sent to other hospitals.

Pan Cheng, an instructor with the hospital’s internal medicine department, who has three decades of experience, said the range of medical problems treated there differs somewhat from that in general hospitals. He attributes that to the mental pressure of being behind bars and the depression suffered by drug addicts.

“I’ve been working here for 11 years,” Pan said. “Most of the 130 beds at our department are fully occupied normally. In recent years, we’ve seen an increase in geriatric diseases, cancer and blood diseases.” Prisoners are now screened in advance to detect diseases and prescribe appropriate treatments.

“There is also a trend with more younger prisoners showing heart diseases, especially those with high blood pressure and diabetes,” Pan said.

The inmates’ medical records are shared by the hospital and prison officers to better coordinate medical treatment and prison discipline.

Naturally, some prisoners feign illness to get out of their cells. Others hide illnesses, fearing that they will undermine the prison work records that help foster early release.

“We need to have insight in order to distinguish these people,” said Qiu Yongsheng, director of the infectious diseases department, who has been practicing medicine for 26 years.

“The diseases treated at our department mainly include tuberculosis, AIDS and hepatitis,” Qiu said. “In 2005, we established a section for AIDS at the hospital. At that time, the prison system had no formal treatment for the disease and many health professionals were scared of AIDS patients. We had neither specific medicine nor professional guidance, but we were responsible for these patients, so we build up a professional team.”

Qiu recalls the time his staff treated a convicted murderer for AIDS and cirrhosis up to the day he was executed for his crime.

“We respected his human rights,” he told Shanghai Daily. “He should die for his crime and not from disease.” The prisoner expressed his gratitude to doctors before the execution.

Another AIDS patient, a 30year-old male drug addict, had two legs with festering sores and had tried to commit suicide several times, Qiu recalled.

He used to hit his head against the wall and swallow things like a ballpoint pen, Qiu said.

“Medics saved his life time after time. He recovered and eventually was released to go home.”

There were also some foreign prisoners hospitalized in Qiu’s department.

One female prisoner from Thailand, convicted for drug dealing, was diagnosed with advanced AIDS and rescued by doctors multiple times.

A week before she died of the disease, she danced for doctors to show her appreciation.

“We take each of our patients seriously and never give anyone up,” said Qiu.

Zhang Xiaodi, chief of the No. 1 section of the hospital prison, told Shanghai Daily that every new inmate is given a medical exam and those with problems are sent to the hospital. Some serious ones will be put in special wards, with designated prison officers monitoring their care.