(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-10 22:55

China's health authority suggested a government foundation to assist the poor with the costs of treating emergencies and serious diseases, following the death of a pregnant migrant woman in Beijing.

Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, speaks at a press conference in Beijing, Dec. 10, 2007. [China.org.cn]

"We have submitted a proposal to the department in charge to set up a state foundation for health assistance to the poor," said Mao Qun'an, spokesman of the Ministry of Health, at a press conference here Monday.

Li Liyun, a 22-year-old who was in her ninth month of pregnancy, died of serious pneumonia at Jingxi Hospital in western Beijing on Nov. 21 as her husband refused to let doctors perform Caesarean surgery.

The couple, from central China's Hunan Province, were migrant workers in the western suburbs of Beijing. The husband, Xiao Zhijun, works at a restaurant with a monthly salary of 700 yuan ($93).

According to the local daily newspaper Beijing Times, Li had received scant medical attention before she sought emergency treatment at Jingxi Hospital. Generally, an expectant mother would have about 12 pre-natal exams. But her husband had only sent her to a private clinic twice for treatment of a cold.

The hospital had offered to do a Caesarean free of charge but the husband did not believe it. Further, the Beijing Times quoted him as saying that he thought that doctors made things worse.

"We came here to treat the cold, not give birth. There is one month left (for delivery). They should let her recover from the cold and then she can give birth without the operation," he said.

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