Zhu Ling
Zhu Ling (朱令) was a student at Tsinghua University in Beijing when she became ill due to thallium poisoning in 1994. The 40-year-old Zhu remains paralyzed, nearly blind and has a diminished mental capacity. She is cared for by her aging parents.
Zhu Ling was born in Beijing on Nov. 24, 1973. Her parents - Wu Chengzhi and Zhu Mingxin - were both senior engineers at the time. Zhu Ling had an older sister Zhu Jin, who was studying in the Biology Department at Peking University, but died unexpectedly during spring vacation in April 1989.
Zhu Ling studied piano since childhood and began practicing the zheng, an ancient Chinese musical instrument, at the age of 15. In 1992, she enrolled in the Chemistry Department at the Tsinghua University, majoring in medical instrumental analysis. A versatile student, Zhu Ling joined the campus traditional instruments orchestra and soon became one of its top players. She won a Class-II Prize at a national college students' talent show. She was also a strong swimmer, and won many university competitions, and was presented the title of Class-II Athlete of Beijing Municipality.
Zhu fell ill on Nov. 24, 1994 with strange poisoning symptoms, lost all her hair and was hospitalized for one month. Later she returned to school.
Zhu's health began to deteriorate for a second time on March 6, 1995. This time she suffered from a terrible pain in her legs and dizziness, and her parents sent her to Beijing No. 3 Hospital. On March 9, her parents asked for specialist consultations from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, the doctors could not formulate a diagnosis. On March 28, Zhu fell into a deep coma.
On Apr. 10, 1995, some of Zhu's classmates translated Zhu's undiagnosed illness into English and sent the files via email to related international medical organizations to seek help. They received 1,635 replies from 18 countries and regions, one third of which asserted that Zhu's case was a typical case of thallium poisoning.
On April 28, 1995, a testing report from the Beijing Municipal Occupation Disease Prevention and Cure Institute confirmed that Zhu Ling had been poisoned by thallium on two separate occasions. By this time Zhu's central nervous system was already badly damaged.
On Aug. 31, 1995, Zhu Ling at last came out of a five-month coma.
In November 1995, Zhu was discharged from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital and transferred to other hospitals and health recovery centers for continued treatment.
At present, the 40-year-old Zhu remains paralyzed, nearly blind, diminished mental capacity and weighs 100 kilograms (220 pounds). She is being cared for by her aging parents, who are in their 70s.
The police believe that Sun Wei, Zhu Ling's roommate while at university, could be the only major suspect in the case. Sun later married an American, changed her name to Jasmine Sun, and went abroad with her husband. She is now a permanent resident of the United States. After years of investigation, the case remains unsolved from insufficient evidence.
In April 2013, Huang Yang, a postgraduate student at Shanghai's Fudan University, died of thallium poisoning and his roommate, identified as Lin, was arrested and charged with murder. The incident brought the unsolved case of Zhu's poisoning back into the spotlight.
In May 2013, a petition from Chinese netizens circulating on the White House website asked for President Barack Obama's administration to look into Zhu's case. The petition asked the Obama administration to investigate and deport Jasmine Sun.
Under Obama administration guidelines, any petition that receives more than 100,000 signatures in its first 30 days will receive an official response from the president's office. In Zhu Ling's case, the White House deadline is June 3, 2013.
As of May 7, 2013, more than 120,000 people had signed the electronic petition for Zhu Ling.
