Authors: Yiqing, Guan Lin
On December 31, 2020, Ai Fen, a well-known anti-epidemic doctor and director of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital, posted that after performing cataract surgery, his retina was detached and his right eye was almost blind, and questioned the irregular behavior of Aier Eye Hospital for his diagnosis and treatment.
In January 2021, Lilac Garden had a complete review of the main points of contention between the two sides in the diagnosis and treatment behavior in a dialogue with Dean Aier, Dr. AiFen and three top ophthalmologists in China. (For details, see: Effen "Blindness" Dispute Review: We spoke with Dean Aier, Dr. Effin and 3 ophthalmologists)
For more than a year, Dr. AiFen continued to defend his rights on the Internet, and Aier Ophthalmology gradually reduced the number of responses on the media platform, but the dispute did not stop, and the focus of the dispute between the two sides gradually moved from a unified "medical issue" to a disagreement.
On April 27, Wang Yong, chief physician and vice president of Wuhan Aier Eye Hospital, the chief surgeon who operated on Ai Fen, announced his decision to "sue Ai Fen for insulting and slandering me, and called on Ai Fen to sue me according to law."
In addition to the medical treatment itself, what is the crux of the dispute between Dr. Effen and Aier Ophthalmology? And what are the demands? In particular, Lilac Garden had a special conversation with the client, Dr. Ai Fen, a person in charge of Aier Ophthalmology, wang Yong of Aier Ophthalmology, the chief surgeon, and Zhang Yongquan, a lawyer at Grandall (Tianjin) Law Firm.
Wrestling: Rights defense or medical trouble
Ai Fen said that as he continued to disclose the mistakes and concealments of Aier Hospital in the treatment of her on Weibo in his personal name, some of the current employees and current employees of Aier Hospital, as well as some patients who had been treated by Aier, began to privately write to Ai fen about their experiences.
"Because I already have more than 2 million fans, many private messages related to Aier I can't read, too many." But if I see something meaningful, I'll send them out," and at the same time, Effin formed a "Group of Aier Victims, which now has sixty or seventy patients."
Subsequently, Effin gradually extended his rights protection to the "exposure of Aier's internal problems".
In June 2021, Effin disclosed that a 12-year-old patient was found to have her left eye retinal detachment 11 months after wearing a orthokeratology lens at guilin Aier Ophthalmology.
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In January 2022, Ai Fen published the Suqian Aier rebate rebate form on Weibo, "Some people take it for months, some as long as several years, and they have bank accounts, which must be true."
The incident also attracted widespread attention on media platforms. On January 9, Suqian Aier Eye Hospital issued a statement saying: According to the information currently transmitted online, the hospital has carried out rectification in 2019 in accordance with the relevant requirements of the board of directors, seriously dealt with illegal employees, and replaced the management team.
Image source: Suqian Aier Eye Hospital
In the process of collecting and exposing this information and materials, Aifen believes that the Aier Group is more focused on "network marketing and full-staff marketing" than on "seriously grasping medical quality and medical safety".
In the view of a person in charge of Aier Ophthalmology, Aier Ophthalmology has sincerely introspected itself in a public statement: "In the past development process, a small number of medical institutions have marketing disputes. Although this has been the practice in the industry for many years."
The person in charge said, "Of course, this is still controversial in terms of compliance, but the Group has completely eliminated this matter in the previous period and carried out comprehensive self-innovation, turning the blade inward and fully embracing social supervision." We welcome and reward everyone who makes a good-faith comment, only in this way can we benefit the development of the hospital and truly benefit our patients. Due to Ms. Aifen's continuous false attacks, slander and slander, this medical dispute incident has caused great damage to the reputation of the Aier Ophthalmology brand by some excessive exaggeration and even slander against Ms. Aifen."
For nearly a year, Effin said she was "in constant pain." "It's hard to hurt my eyes myself, but now I'm mentally tortured. If I want to defend my rights all the time, I have to write and publish evidence with my only remaining eye every day, which consumes a lot of my time and energy."
Rights defense became a part of Ai Fen's daily life and changed her life state: "I have to work and take care of the children at the same time, leaving her little leisure time, now she can only coax the child to sleep every night, then go back to the computer, organize the materials, collect information, and then edit and store it in the draft box on Weibo, and then send it out after getting up the next morning, and every night this process will take her about two hours." 」
Wang Yong, Aifen's chief surgeon, also "does not want to remember the more than a year of suffering.". "Patients do not do medical identification, doctors and hospitals can not apply unilaterally, Ai Fen as the head of the department is very clear. Ai Fen tried me online for more than a year, saying that I was a "fraudster" and that I was "harvesting her organs alive", where is the law? Is it possible to easily kill a person without a legal decision? I wanted to know the answer to that question, so I called on Effen to file a lawsuit against me too. We are all intellectuals, and Ai Fen is still a party member cadre, and it is our duty and responsibility to believe that the organization believes in the law."
Image source: Screenshot of the report
A person in charge of Aier Ophthalmology stressed: "Rights protection must be exercised in accordance with the law, and the Regulations on the Prevention and Handling of Medical Disputes are the basic basis for handling doctor-patient disputes. The regulations stipulate various ways to deal with doctor-patient disputes, but Ms. Aifen did not follow any of the methods stipulated in the regulations to resolve them, but chose to conduct false attacks and public opinion trials on the Internet for a long time, which has seriously exceeded the limits of "rights protection", and her behavior cannot be afforded by any individual or unit."
The person in charge said: "Ms. Ai Fen's so-called rights protection has long crossed the line, and she has publicly named the woman who has nothing to do with the medical dispute on the Internet as her lover Xiaosan, and the other party's life has been seriously damaged." Can this be called rights protection? Why do medical disputes need to be resolved by law? Because only the law can judge it fairly. If there is no legal procedure to determine that the so-called rights protection is completely beyond the standard, then any doctor will become a victim, and Wang Yong is just one of them."
As for the question of "medical trouble", Ai Fen believes: "The definition of medical trouble is to seek my own interests, but I have not made a penny for myself now, but I am sacrificing my interests." I speak out for the public and society, for many other victims, and I do feel that Aier has done a lot of harm to the people of China. As a citizen, if I know that this kind of thing happened to Aier, I have the right to expose it, even if I finish my lawsuit in the future, and Aier still has the problem of violating discipline and violations, I can still continue to disclose it. You can do it without letting others say, where is this truth, right? I know you're strong, but I'm calm."
Half-way reconciliation
In fact, the two sides have sought other solutions.
Ai Fen said that in early December 2020, the head of the Aier Medical Department called himself and twice proposed to meet, but Ai Fen thought that "the attitude was not sincere, just eager to be private with me", so he refused the invitation to meet.
On January 4, 2021 and April 20, 2021, Aier published the "Verification Report of Aier Eye Hospital Group on the Diagnosis and Treatment Process of Ms. Effin" and the "Notice on the Medical Dispute with Ms. Effin", respectively.
Ai Fen believes that the former's report denies the fact that he went to the hospital for follow-up on June 3, while the latter "forged the process of my pupil expansion, even a few minutes to give me eye drops were faked, but obviously did not expand, the case said that there was no expansion, He Ling also said that there was no expansion, and Wang Yong's recording also said that there was no expansion."
On March 30, 2021, the Hubei Provincial Health Commission invited ophthalmologists from different regions and hospitals to Wuhan to hold an expert consultation meeting to discuss the medical issues questioned by Aifen.
Ai Fen said that at that time, she was "not aware of this meeting", until now, she still has a skeptical attitude towards this meeting, "This meeting did not communicate with me in the slightest, I did not know when they discussed, nor did I know who the experts who came, what title, what profession, what reference materials were discussed, and whether the authenticity was verified." This is important because if the references are all forged by Aier, what is the point of the discussion? I'm an outpatient, and the medical records are in my hands, but no one is looking for me alone. Experts, Aier and I, the three parties, at least consult my opinion, right? I don't know the outcome of the discussion right now, is that fair?"
Ai Fen told Lilac Garden that she later learned that the incident was in another Weibo Big V article.
Image source: Ai Fen Weibo
A person in charge of Aier Ophthalmology said: "As far as I know, at least four investigation teams organized by the Health Commission have come to Wuhan Aier to investigate, one of which is at the national level, and all of them are authoritative ophthalmologists from top three public hospitals in China. Because Ai Fen is a well-known special person, and public opinion has arisen, the relevant departments attach great importance to it. What we understand is that Dr. Wang Yong's surgery has indications and no contraindications. Dr. Wang Yong, as a party and also an investigator, participated in all the expert investigation processes, accepted a comprehensive inquiry, and examined all relevant materials. Please contact the relevant authorities for details of the results of the investigation."
According to the person in charge, "What we feel is that Ms. Effin refuses to accept all objective information that does not conform to her assumptions. For example, eye photos, she must say that it is a p-chart, we as a national chain of brand hospitals, the use of inferior p-chart practices is tantamount to suicidal behavior. In order to reassure Ms. Aifen, we found a third-party judicial institution to do an appraisal without p-chart, which she refused to accept. We said she could choose any appraisal agency in the world, and we reimbursed the cost, but she refused to respond."
Image source: Wang Yong Circle of Friends Statement
Lawyer Zhang Yongquan told Lilac Garden: "From the principle of fairness, if only one party is present, it will lead to unfavorable results for the other party, which will not help resolve the dispute and will also expand the tearing between doctors and patients."
"However, we cannot judge whether the Health Commission initiated an administrative investigation procedure or a petition reception procedure for this case, which is of different nature and case handling procedure." If it is a closed-door meeting led by the Health Commission and in which neither the plaintiff nor the defendant participates, it is not illegal in form to do expert consultation and deliberation on the materials of the case." Lawyer Zhang introduced.
Another public communication was initiated by Ai Fen.
In May 2021, Ai Fen expressed the hope that under the auspices of the leaders of his hospital, he could invite media people to sit with Aier and er to publicly restore the truth of the incident, but did not receive a response from Aier.
Ai Fen told Lilac Garden that in November of the same year, a big V on Weibo was entrusted by Aier to find Ai Fen's brother, and the brother called Ai Fen, saying that Ai Er wanted to give her 3 million, hoping that the matter could be private, but Ai Fen immediately refused.
Ai Fen said that in March 2022, the party secretary of the Aier Group and the deputy director of government affairs came to his office together and said that Aier would deal with and fire Wang Yong: "I thought it was a better start, but later in the process of conversation, they still denied that they had faked the process of expanding my pupils for me, and even named which nurse enlarged my pupils", Ai Fen was "very angry", "I said that you either restore the truth or kill me".
"On March 24, someone asked me to meet, I thought it was a media person who wanted to talk about something else, I didn't expect to come to Wuhan to find me for Aier's business, but I didn't reply, on April 3, he called me again, saying that Aier wanted to give me two sets of river view rooms and help my sister arrange work, I also refused, and then I saw big V post condemning my actions in the process of dispute with Aier."
Ai Fen believes that Aier has always wanted to be private, firstly because of "problems in the diagnosis and treatment process", and secondly because "I am afraid that I will continue to expose their violations of discipline and regulations and affect their development".
A person in charge of Aier Ophthalmology denied this statement: "In the past year or so, we have actively communicated with Ms. Aifen through various channels, including but not limited to Aifen's colleagues, teachers, friends, relatives, and relevant departments. These are all things that are justified and are what every hospital that treats patients warmly will do. If we don't do it, will we be accused of 'arrogant ignoring patients'? But it is clear that we have never authorized anyone to seek personal gain with so-called huge sums of money. Ms. Ai Fen once publicly posted a Weibo post saying that in the case of her, foreign countries would give tens of millions of dollars, and there were also many rumors that Ms. Ai Fen wanted hundreds of millions of dollars, and we did not accept it."
"To say more from the heart, in the face of the network V that controls the right to speak, general doctors and hospitals are vulnerable groups, which is how many major medical hot events everyone can see." Ms. Effen is a special person and we sometimes have a really hard time communicating with her. Again, no hospital can avoid medical disputes, Aier always insists on first using warmth as a link to solve the patient's problem, these communications are normal and necessary, for every patient, and will continue to insist on it in the future." The person in charge said.
For the failure of several contacts between the two parties, Zhang Yongquan also believes that it is very normal: "In the process of consultation or mediation, if there is no final mediation conclusion formed, and if it has not become a written or actual performance of a mediation result, the two parties can terminate the process of such mediation or consultation at any time." Even if the court proceedings or the mediation carried out by the court in the course of accepting the case, either party can still express its non-acceptance of mediation at any time and request a trial, which is legal and reasonable."
Pending litigation
After several failed contacts, the two sides reached a brief stalemate until Wang Yong sued Ai Fen for "insulting, rumor-mongering and slandering him.". Subsequently, Aier Group issued a document expressing support for doctors to protect their rights according to law.
On the evening of April 26, Wang Yong wrote in a message posted through the WeChat circle of friends: "After more than 500 days of online violence, I decided to stand up and sue Ai Fen, director of the emergency department of Wuhan Central Hospital, in accordance with the law, to protect my rights and defend the dignity of doctors."
Lawyer Zhang Yongquan told Ding Xiangyuan: "According to the existing path of resolving medical disputes, it is certainly more appropriate to solve them through peer review, and interfering with the solution of problems through public opinion is definitely contrary to the original intention of alleviating the relationship between doctors and patients." In this kind of trial that infringes on the right to reputation and the right to honor, the plaintiff's claim will first require the other party to terminate the infringement; secondly, it will require the defendant to apologize, such as placing a top in a continuous newspaper or Weibo to restore social evaluation, and may also attach some moral damages, of course, depending on the plaintiff's claims."
Lawyer Zhang said, "But even if you win, in fact, both sides are losers, because there will be no positive impact." For the plaintiff, the greater significance is to stop the other party from further similar behavior."
Faced with many questions about why not file a lawsuit, Ai Fen insisted that he had to go through the legal process, but it was not time yet.
"According to the law, my litigation period is three years, and I must collect evidence and information, make preparations, and then go through the legal process. Aier is still falsifying my test results, and now going through the legal process will only cause me to suffer secondary injuries, secondly, Wang Yong in the process of treatment is not a medical error and medical dispute, but for the purpose of profit to operate on me; third, this is no longer a victim's problem, according to the state's standards, in the end may only pay me tens of thousands of yuan, what is the meaning of me, my eyes are no longer good, so I am not in a hurry, I am a victim, when to sue is my right."
Effen proposed, "I want more people to know the truth about Aier, and I feel successful in saying what I say here every day, and I can reduce one victim every day." And, in the end, there will definitely be a day when I start the lawsuit."
Wang Yong stressed that he hopes that Ai Fen can file a lawsuit against himself: "If the law determines that I am responsible, or what proportion of the responsibility, I am willing to bear it." If Effin doesn't have evidence to prove my p-chart, if my surgery is not a matter of principle, I hope Effin will apologize to the deceived public."
In this regard, Ai Fen said: "On March 17th, when Aier came to me for personal gain, he said that he wanted to fire Wang Yong, and now Wang Yong is going to defend his rights, which I think is very funny. He sued me, I answered the lawsuit, and now I haven't even received the indictment, and when I receive it, I'll say that if I'm wrong, I'm willing to accept punishment."
Curator: Leu.
Source: Visual China, Aifen Weibo