SCMP
Liya Su in Shanghai
Published: 9:00am, 17 Jun, 2022
People & Culture / Social Welfare
Liya Su in Shanghai
Published: 9:00am, 17 Jun, 2022
People & Culture / Social Welfare
China’s beauty slimness obsession highlighted after woman’s weight drops to 25kg in a year with multiple organ failure and refuses treatment
- A woman has shocked doctors in China after dropping from 65kg to 25kg in just one year
- She reportedly refused recommended treatments, despite warnings she could die if she continued her present diet
Anorexic young mother of two in China weighing 25kg admitted to ICU with multiple organ failure. Photo: Handout
The case of a 30-year-old woman with an eating disorder that saw her weight drop to just 25kg and taken to hospital with multiple organ failure has shocked doctors in China.
The unnamed woman, who is just 165 centimetres tall, from Hebei province in northern China, lost 40kg in the last year due to extreme dieting and weight loss caused by an eating disorder, Chinese news site Shanghai Video reported yesterday.
The woman decided to commence a highly restrictive diet when her weight reached 65kg after she had her second child.
Within a year she had lost 40kg and weighed just 25kg. Feeling unwell, the woman took herself to a local hospital.
In addition to suffering from multiple organ failure, the woman had severe malnutrition, heart failure, gastrointestinal disorder, hair loss and had ceased menstruating.
The treating doctor, surnamed Hou, diagnosed the woman’s obsession with thinness as the eating disorder anorexia nervosa and said she believed it dated back to her youth.
“She has anorexia nervosa, and regardless of her poor physical and mental state, she hasn’t shown any desire for food,” said Hou.
“She became sick and experienced multiple organ failure, then she was sent to the intensive care unit for recovery.”
However, the woman reportedly refused recommended treatments, despite acknowledging that she could die if she continued her present diet regime.
A further medical report from the hospital said the woman had used a number of extreme methods to drastically lose weight, such as acupuncture and taking cathartics and laxatives.
https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/so...a5557ddf79955ee
