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92-year-old Nanjing Massacre survivor has miraculous escape

(chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2015-11-19 11:05

92-year-old Nanjing Massacre survivor has miraculous escape

Doctors stand beside Yan Baozhen at Nanjing Hospital of T.C.M. in Nanjing, capital city of East China’s Jiangsu province. on Nov 18, 2015. [Photo/xhby.net]

One of the 100 or so survivors of the Nanjing Massacre in 1937 has been saved after a life-threatening lung condition at a hospital in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, the Modern Express reported.

Yan Baozhen, 92, felt ill during a transfusion process aimed at reliving her from the discomforts caused by chronic bronchitis, which had aggravated due to the recent weather changes, at Nanjing Hospital of T.C.M. on Monday.

After allowing the quick processing of the paperwork especially for the Nanjing Massacre survivor, doctors administered emergency treatment to her in no time and saved her life.

The 92-year-old is in stable condition and can speak with others, though a doctor said she still needs time to recover as she has underlying health problems such as coronary heart disease.

Yan has great significance in testifying what the Japanese did during the Massacre, along with the other survivors, whose average age is now more than 80 years.

Though she was 14 years old at the time of the atrocity, the woman still remembers how her older brother was killed by Japanese soldiers while she and other family members fled to escape being tortured or killed by the Japanese,

"I can't forget the dead fellows at that disaster, I can't forget the history during that period," Yan said.

Yan goes to the memorial hall of the victims in Nanjing Massacre to mourn the dead every year.

Historical records of the testimony provided by the survivors of the national tragedy will be more and more precious, as the elderly will pass away with age, according to experts.

There were 1,756 survivors of the Massacre based on the first statistics in 1987. However, more survivors passed away every year while there have been fewer newly identified survivors in recent years, which have shrunk the number of survivors of the Massacre to less than 200.

Earlier in July, Hu Guiying, 92, another survivor of the Nanjing Massacre, passed away at her home in Xuanwu district, Nanjing city, East China's Jiangsu province.

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