A 41-year-old mother surnamed Chow is stranded in western Hubei and feeling desperate about the health of her daughter, who suffers from epilepsy.
Chow and her daughter arrived in the city of Yichang on Jan 21, with a two-week supply of medication for the girl’s epilepsy.
On Jan 24, Yichang was locked down. All exits from the city were closed. Chow and her 8-year-old daughter were unable to return to Hong Kong on Feb 1 as they had planned.
The girl’s medication ran out. She had a seizure and was hospitalized. It was midnight. Four hours later, after injections of medication, the seizures stopped, Chow recalled.
On Feb 11, the girl received a shipment of Levetiracetam from the Hong Kong Department of Health to treat the girl’s epilepsy.
“We were fortunate to get help from the government,” said Chow.
It is not only medications that were exhausted. There’s a struggle to find basic necessities, and Chow described her family’s life in Yichang as “miserable”.
A video showed cabbages that she and her family grew in their yard — the only vegetable they have these days. Besides that, they have nothing left except instant noodles and milk.
It is understood that Chow and her daughter will not board the first chartered flight the SAR government sends to Hubei. The flights aim to carry the 532 Hong Kong residents stuck in Hubei’s capital city of Wuhan, as well as people in urgent situations in other cities, such as pregnant women, patients who needs chemotherapy and specialized treatment, and candidates for the Diploma of Secondary Education Examination.
