Source: Beijing News
Text/Guanwen Shi said
Editor/Guanwen Shi said
On November 24, 1994, on Zhu Ling's 21st birthday, it was also the day when Zhu Ling participated in the performance of the Tsinghua University Folk Band.
Despite the excitement she showed in the performance of the Tsinghua University Folk Band, her physical condition gradually deteriorated, and she insisted on going to school, but her classmates noticed that she wore a hat to hide her hair loss. [Panda]
On February 20, 1995, Zhu Ling returned home alone again, reporting pain all over her body, especially in her feet, and the appearance of shingles.
After a long time of not being able to find the cause of the disease, the doctor suspected that Zhu Ling might have thallium poisoning, and suggested that he go to the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine for identification.
She was treated with Prussian blue, but because the poisoning had already invaded the nervous system, she fell into a deep coma, and eventually, Zhu Ling's condition was determined to be "acute disseminated cerebrospinal radiculoneuritis".
Zhu Ling's condition was severe, treatment became complicated, and the family was caught in confusion and anxiety about the cause and treatment, and this experience laid the foundation for the investigation that followed.
01
After learning the result, Zhu Ling's parents immediately reported the case, and Professor Xue Fangyu from the Department of Chemistry at Tsinghua University participated in the process of assisting in the case.
During the investigation, some strange things attracted attention, such as the theft of Zhu Ling's dormitory and the situation of cleaning up the scene, which made the family doubt the truth of the case.
Wang Buye, a retired veteran of the Public Security Bureau, provided Zhu Ling's parents with the possible conditions for the perpetrators, and after Zhu Mingxin and his wife's suspicions narrowed, they noticed that Zhu Ling's good friend Sun had introduced.
Sun became the focus of the investigation because of the conflict between his relationship with Zhu Ling and some abnormal behaviors, and Sun was the only person who had access to thallium salt and Zhu Ling at that time, however, in August 1998, Sun was announced to be released from suspicion, and she said in her statement that there was no evidence related to Zhu Ling's poisoning.
In the case of Zhu Ling's poisoning, due to the passage of time, the lack of monitoring facilities in the relevant places, and the loss of criminal traces and physical evidence, the public security organs faced great investigation problems after receiving the report.
Nearly half a year has passed since Zhu Ling showed symptoms of poisoning and when he reported the case, and many untraceable incidents may have occurred during this time, which has increased the difficulty of solving the case.
One of the key factors is that the monitoring facilities in the relevant places are incomplete, which leads to the inability to obtain real-time images of the crime scene, and the lack of monitoring facilities means that the public security organs have lost a key way to obtain important clues and evidence.
A series of suspicions and discoveries during the investigation further complicated the case, with the family questioning the handling of the case within Tsinghua University and the public security bureau facing a certain dilemma, despite the various criminal investigation measures taken by the investigators, they were faced with the dilemma of not being able to determine the identity and behavior of the suspect due to the lack of direct evidence.
In the investigation of the case, the public security organs may have done their best, but due to the limitations of objective conditions, they have not been able to obtain clear evidence of the criminal suspect, which makes the Zhu Ling poisoning case a long-pending unsolved case, which has brought additional difficulties to the resolution of the case.
02
The long-unsolved case of Zhu Ling has become a high-profile and unsolved unsolved case, and although the family and classmates have tried to find clues many times, the process of investigating Zhu Ling's life at school has been in trouble.
Later, Zhu Ling's case attracted widespread attention on the Internet and became the focus of heated discussions in the society, and in March 2004, overseas students established the "Help Zhu Ling Foundation", which further aroused public attention to the case.
However, despite the attention and help of the Internet, Zhu Ling's case still failed to solve the mystery, and the intervention of the Internet made Zhu Ling's case a social phenomenon, and also laid a certain foundation for subsequent investigation and pursuit of truth.
03
Looking back on Zhu Ling's experience, she was an accomplished chemistry student at Tsinghua University, however, after her 21st birthday, she began to feel unwell, stomach pain became a daily routine, her health gradually deteriorated, and even symptoms of hair loss appeared, and eventually, she fell into a deep coma, and why is there no cure for thallium poisoning that caused such consequences?
The symptoms of thallium poisoning are varied, including gastrointestinal problems, neurological abnormalities, skin symptoms, etc., which makes early diagnosis difficult and easy to mistake for other common diseases.
Another tricky aspect of thallium poisoning is that there is no specific antidote, and treatment is mainly done through supportive means to relieve symptoms.
The symptoms of thallium poisoning are characterized by general infection in the early stages, which makes it difficult to distinguish between the symptoms of other diseases, which is a major challenge in the diagnosis of thallium poisoning, making timely treatment difficult.
Early symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and fever, which are similar to those of a general infection, and patients may feel unwell, but this sensation is not a clear indication of thallium poisoning.
Because these symptoms can occur in thallium poisoning and other disorders, doctors need to do a series of tests to rule out the cause to determine the cause.
This process is quite time-consuming, and while waiting for a definitive diagnosis, the patient's condition may have deteriorated further.
Doctors may perform laboratory tests, imaging tests, etc. to rule out other possibilities, but this takes time and patience, and the reason why the early symptoms of thallium poisoning are not specific is that thallium affects the human body in a wide range of ways, involving many aspects such as the gastrointestinal tract and nervous system.
Therefore, the non-specificity of symptoms is a major challenge in the diagnosis of thallium poisoning and one of the reasons why it is difficult to treat this type of poisoning in time.
Early recognition of thallium poisoning is essential for prompt and effective treatment, but non-specific symptoms can be problematic to this process.
However, a significant challenge in the diagnosis of thallium poisoning is the lack of specific assays, which makes it difficult to confirm the poisoning status.
In contrast, some other toxic substances may be tested by blood or urine to quickly confirm the extent of poisoning, but thallium does not have such a direct marker, which makes it difficult for doctors to quickly obtain a definitive diagnosis when they initially suspect thallium poisoning.
The symptoms of poisoning are also varied and similar to those of other diseases, ranging from gastrointestinal problems to neurological abnormalities, which are non-specific and not sufficient to definitively indicate thallium poisoning.
This makes it necessary for doctors to perform more comprehensive tests, including laboratory tests, imaging tests, etc., to rule out other possibilities.
In addition, thallium is excreted relatively quickly and disappears from the body more quickly, so urine or blood tests taken for some time after the onset of symptoms may not accurately reflect the actual poisoning.
For all these reasons, the diagnosis of thallium poisoning often takes a long time, and this delay may lead to a deterioration of the patient's condition before treatment can begin, so the lack of specific testing methods for thallium poisoning is a major obstacle to the treatment of this type of poisoning.
The treatment of thallium poisoning presents a serious challenge, as there is currently no specific antidote that can quickly remove thallium from the body, and treatment is largely dependent on time and supportive care, which increases the need for patient patience and meticulous care.
In the case of thallium poisoning, finding a drug that can effectively remove or neutralize thallium has always been a difficult problem in the medical community, because thallium is a heavy metal, its excretion rate is relatively slow, and it is difficult to remove the thallium accumulated in the body quickly, therefore, doctors rely more on time and expect the patient's body to be able to gradually excrete thallium from the body.
Supportive care is also a key part of treatment, which includes maintaining the patient's vital signs, maintaining water and electrolyte balance, and relieving symptoms.
For people with thallium poisoning, gastrointestinal lavage may be needed to reduce thallium absorption in the body, and medications, such as anti-nausea drugs and antidiarrheal drugs, may be needed to relieve symptoms.
Although these treatments can help patients get through the storm, the lack of specific antidotes means that the treatment process is relatively slow and does not fully ensure the removal of thallium from the body.
This makes the treatment of thallium poisoning more complex and time-consuming, so the best way to prevent thallium poisoning remains to avoid exposure to thallium and its compounds to reduce the risk of developing this type of poisoning.
Once the damage to the nervous system caused by thallium poisoning occurs, it is often difficult to repair, which brings long-term neurological problems to patients and becomes an important challenge in the treatment process.
The nervous system is a complex and delicate tissue of the human body, once affected by thallium poisoning, it often causes irreversible damage, thallium is a neurotoxic heavy metal, especially easy to have toxic effects on the nervous system.
Neurological damage caused by thallium poisoning manifests itself primarily in the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, and nerve endings.
In patients with thallium poisoning, the nervous system may be affected by movement disorders, paresthesias, or even coma, which are related to the direct damage to nerve cells by thallium, and once the damage occurs, it becomes extremely difficult to repair the nervous system.
Some studies have shown that even if thallium is successfully removed from the body during treatment, the repair of the nervous system is not achieved overnight, which may lead to long-term neurological problems affecting quality of life and daily activities.
Therefore, an important aspect of the treatment of thallium poisoning is to take measures as early as possible in the treatment process to minimize the damage to the nervous system.
At the same time, scientists are constantly trying to find ways to promote nerve repair to improve the patient's chances of recovery, however, for now, the difficulty of neurological damage remains a major challenge in the treatment of thallium poisoning.
This year, Zhu Ling ushered in his 50th birthday on the hospital bed, however, sadly, at 22:59 on December 22, Zhu Ling unfortunately passed away.
Nandu reporter contacted Zhu Ling's father Wu Chengzhi on the same day, Wu Chengzhi expressed an indifferent mood for the death of his daughter, saying, "I don't feel (justice absent), it's normal, the hospital also tried its best to save it," Facing the concern and condolences of netizens, he responded affectionately: "(Zhu Ling) will be buried in Beijing,"
On the phone, Wu Chengzhi also revealed the recent situation of him and his wife, he said: "We are in good health, we don't have any plans yet, and we will arrange it slowly," this passage reveals his calm attitude towards life, despite the heavy blow of his daughter's long-term illness and unfortunate death, he still seems to be trying his best to face the variables of life.
Zhu Ling's death has brought this decades-long unsolved case to the attention of the society again, and her father did not emphasize too much about the feeling of "lack of justice" when he expressed his position, but faced everything with a peaceful attitude.
For the future, Wu Chengzhi said that he has no clear plan and will arrange it slowly, which may be a sign of his tenacity and composure in the face of life's twists and turns.