The theme of this year's special program for Consumers' Day was Healthy Order, Healthy Life and typical experiences were publicized to warn people of some of the fraudulent tricks and illicit practices in the health businesses. We discovered the case of a young girl who lost her life as the result of irresponsible advertising and even more irresponsible practice at a hospital.

Today we will talk about a girl. Her name is Cao Zhihua. She was even busier than the photographer when her classmate was shooting wedding photos, choosing the scenes and changing clothes for the bride. In the eyes of her classmates and friends, this 26-year-old Harbin girl was a remarkable person.

In the eyes of her parents, Cao Zhihua was a good daughter. Her loyalty and her consideration for others brought endless happiness to them. They were very proud of her.

Cao Zhihua's mother said, "She was very considerate. Whenever there was a holiday or on our birthdays, Mother's Day or Father's Day, she would give us flowers or cards."

In March 2003, Cao Zhihua happened to see an advertisement in a newspaper. She was greatly attracted by the beguiling promises it made about an effective surgical fat removal procedure. The ad also made promises about the safety of the procedure and, after studying it carefully Cao felt confident that the operation was simple, and routine.

Cao Zhihua's father said, "She was not fat. She weighed 60 kg and was 163 cm high. She had liked playing sports from a very young age. So she simply looked very strong."

On March 8, 2003, Cao Zhihua went to the Hatuo Hospital beauty surgery, the address on the advertisement.

The Ddctor noted, "We signed a surgical plan to do the first operation mainly on the abdomen and around the waist. The operation on the legs was to be done on March 21."

When Cao Zhihua lay down on the operating table, she didn¡¯t know that the doctor in charge had no authoritative safety standard concerning the amount of fat that could be removed even though he had been doing the operation for several years.

The doctor also insisted that the books differ about the amount of fat that can be removed from a person. Generally, 3000 or 4000 ml of fat will be taken out once, but sometimes 8000 to 9000 ml. There is no codex to refer to, or standard to follow. The amount of fat that can be safely removed depends on the health of the individual.

The doctor removed 3500 milliliters of fat from Cao's waist and abdomen on the first occasion and asked her to go home right after the operation. The second operation was done according to plan 13 days later. This time 2500 milliliters of fat were removed. The doctor didn't ask her to stay for further examination and Cao Zhihua went to her brothers' for a rest after the operation. The parents had no idea that their daughter had had these operations, and by the time they did find out, their daughter was dead, a body under a white shroud.

Cao's mother said, "I went over and my daughter was lying at the corridor. I saw my husband crying and stamping his feet. There was nowhere to turn for help. I went to the doctors and beseeched them to save my daughter, but the doctors said there was no way."

A coroner from the Harbin Medical University told them that Cao Zhihua had died of heart disease. But her parents couldn't believe that their healthy, sports-loving daughter could have died of a heart attack. Most of her father's hair turned completely white, overnight. But he set to, and consulted all the references he could find that were related to his daughter's operations. He found that even in the US the mortality rate associated with fat-drawing operations is one in five thousand. In short, the procedure has a risk factor up to 60 times higher than other operations. It was a far cry from the claim in the advertisement that the operation was safe.

The Judicial expert said, "For one thing, the advertisement had not been examined and approved by the health department. Secondly, it claimed that a complicated and dangerous operation was safe."

The father was convinced that his daughter's death was directly related to the fat-drawing operation and requested that the coroner do a second appraisal on the cause of death. The conclusion this time was: Cao Zhihua's death was the causal result of the fat-drawing operation.

In June 2003, Cao's father took Hatuo Hospital to court. And in December the intermediate people's court of Harbin ruled the case in the father's favor.

The lawsuit was won. But it was a hollow victory. It did not restore Cao Zhihua to their care. Now they are two lonely souls sorrowing in a house that feels very empty.

Cao Zhihua's mother said, "We bought this house because it was convenient for our daughter to go to work. We could see our daughter's office when we stood at our balcony."

The daughter has gone, but habit dies hard. Every morning and at dusk, the father still stands near the sill and watches the crossing where the daughter used to come and go every day. The office is still in sight, but he can no longer hear the laughter of his daughter. The crossing is still there, but he will never again see the glad sight of his daughter striding across it.

"I keep expecting her to come back after work. I was used to it. Sometimes when she went to work in the morning, she would wave to me at the crossing or turn back and throw me as brilliant smile. I felt so happy then," Cao' s father noted.