Family of Wuhan doctor 'kept from seeing him'

Family of Wuhan doctor 'kept from seeing him'

The mother of Li Wenliang, the doctor who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the mainland's devastating coronavirus outbreak, says she and her husband were not allowed to see their son's body after his death.



Li, 34, was among eight physicians punished by police in Wuhan for discussing the emergence of the Sars-like virus on social media in December. He later caught the virus from a patient and died last Friday.



In an interview with mainland media, his mother said the authorities in Wuhan stopped the couple from going to the hospital where Li died, as well as the funeral parlour he was taken to, citing infection risks.



"When we arrived at the hospital, they didn’t let us go into the resuscitation room. When we went to the mortuary, we couldn’t see our son," she said.



The woman and her husband also contracted the virus and she said they had only just been discharged from hospital.



The doctor's mother said that in his last messages to her, he had said he could also be discharged in a week or two.



“What should we tell our grandson? Where’s daddy?” she said, breaking down in tears.



She recounted how her son had been called to the police station in the middle of the night back in January to sign a letter of admonishment for his whistleblowing.



She demanded an explanation from the authorities.



More than 40,000 people have now been infected by the new coronavirus virus on the mainland, with more than 900 deaths reported.