What was supposed to be a routine procedure to repair torn ligaments in Hao Chan’s ankles turned into a five-year medical malpractice battle with a corrupt judicial system.
Hao, a triathlete, tore the lateral side ligaments in both his ankles while in training. A commerce student at the University of Calgary, 35-year-old Hao returned to China where he sought care at one of the country’s top orthopedic centers, No. 6 Peoples Hospital in Shanghai.
Damaged ligaments represent one of the most common sports-related injuries, and repairing them is considered a fairly straightforward procedure.
But in Hao’s first — and what should have been his only — operation, the surgeon seemingly mistook inversion for eversion on the operating sheet and ended up performing a surgery that left Hao’s ankles in a markedly worse state than before the operation.
“[The surgeon] never told me the truth,” says Hao from his home in Calgary. “Exactly why he made the mistake is still unknown to me or anyone else other than himself. On different occasions, he told me different stories about what happened.”
This stonewalling was just the beginning of Hao’s ordeal with China’s medical and court systems. Five years and eight surgeries later, including one in which an incision was made in the wrong leg, Hao says he’s “on the verge of losing hope of ever getting even a basic, decent justice.”
No Justice for Student After Botched Surgeries in China
What was supposed to be a routine procedure to repair torn ligaments in Hao Chan’s ankles turned into a five-year medical malpractice battle with a corrupt judicial system.
No. 6 Peoples Hospital in Shanghai, where a botched operation on Hao Chan's ankles led to eight more surgeries, one in which an incision was made in the wrong leg. ()

Joan Delaney
Senior Editor, Canadian Edition
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