Hospital breakout not led by petitioners

Local health authorities in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region denied on Wednesday that the 42 mentally disabled patients who fled last Friday include petitioners, amid public speculation that some of them were sent to the psychiatric hospital by force.

Liu Xianjie, director of the health bureau of Tengxian county in Wuzhou, confirmed that 18 of the escapees were indeed sent to the hospital by local police for acting violently.

"Patients can be sent here by police on the approval of their relatives and the hospital will treat them after diagnosis. There is no way that we lock up petitioners by diagnosing them as mentally ill," Liu said.

Liu's explanation came after Hu Chaoyun, a deputy director of the hospital, told China Central Television that some of the escaped patients had been committed by the police, triggering the prevalent belief that some petitioners may have orchestrated the escape.

The patients, seven of whom have criminal records, broke out of the No.3 People's Hospital of the county by coercing a nursing worker on July 5. All the escapees had been found by Saturday and are now under treatment.

A nursing worker on duty, surnamed Zeng, told the Beijing News that a patient grabbed him from behind and another two took away his keys and mobile phone. "One of them told me he wanted to go out because he missed his family," the nurse said.

Hu said more than 200 police officers were dispatched to search for the runaways on Friday.

Tang Wusheng, a chief physician of the hospital's psychiatry department, told the Wuzhou-based Xijiang Metropolis Daily Tuesday that the hot weather may have been behind the breakout, since patients get irritable much more easily in summer.

Liu pointed out that the bad living conditions in the hospital are also to blame. "It's too crowded when more than 20 patients share a ward."

Hu said the lead organizer of the escape was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to the hospital by the police after slashing his wife to death in 2008, adding that his family doesn't allow him to take medication at home even though he is recovering.

Zhang Zanning, a law professor of the Nanjing-based Southeast University, told the Global Times that psychiatric patients would not run away under normal circumstances.

"They may attempt to escape if they are fully recovered or have gained enough self-consciousness. In that case, they can continue their treatment at home, but most of the time, their family would prefer them to stay at the hospital," Zhang said.

Zhang also said there is a possibility that some petitioners are locked up by police, even if they are not mentally ill.