More Than 20 Elderly People Have Died at Shanghai Donghai Elderly Care Hospital

At the Shanghai Donghai Elderly Care Hospital, or Donghai Nursing Home for short, at least 20 elderly people receiving care have died in the hospital recently, and their families are trying to find out the reason. The Donghai Nursing Home is the largest elderly care center in Shanghai with 1,800 beds, according to The Wall Street Journal.

In recent days, the Donghai Nursing Home has asked family members for permission to cremate the bodies kept in the hospital in the past few days. Fearing that the body was decomposing, some family members agreed to cremation, but some refused and asked the hospital to show evidence of the death process. One of the families said they requested an autopsy.

One of the family members, Ma Hua, told The Wall Street Journal that she and her family were shocked by the news of her 82-year-old father’s sudden death. She said that she was never told by the hospital that her father was in critical condition, so they rejected repeated requests from the hospital to send the body to a crematorium. Donghai Nursing Home has so far not given any explanation or reply to the family’s refusal of cremation.

Two of CCP China’s domestic media outlets, Sixth Tone and Caixin, previously reported on the Donghai nursing home, but the reports were removed in less than two hours.