2 March 2012 - Ting Tsu-chi, 61 carries his 85-year-old mother on a sling like a baby because she's too frail to sit in a wheelchair, to Chi Mei Medical Center in Greater Tainan, Taiwan. Ting, a retired investigator with the Ministry of Justice’s Tainan bureau, had even earlier in his career passed on a promotion because he would have had to relocate to Taipei and so would have been unable to look after his mother. He opted for early retirement in 2007 so that he could take better care of his mother. His father passed away in the same year.
A few days later, amid media scrutiny caused by intense interest in the photo which was widely circulated online, he commented:
I am not as filial and honorable as described in the news reports, and I’m sorry for taking up so much media coverage over the past few days. My mother has a history of heart disease and high blood pressure and requires 24-hour care. My mother and I do not require any assistance. Such resources would could be better employed helping someone truly in need. It was the first time I carried my mother using a piece of cloth, and it was also the last time. In the future, I will call for an ambulance to take her to the hospital and borrow a hospital bed for her.
He took his mother back to the hospital again on the 5th, where she stayed for 10 days, and him staying with her for all that time. She passed away on the 15th, due to heart and lung failure.
He commented: "Everyone is doing the same, and I am not special. I just did my best and stayed beside her."
Ting's wife commented: "He sounded like he was in tears whenever discussing his mother's illness over the phone; I have married the right man."
4 years earlier, Ting fought a legal battle with a brother over the right to take care of their mother: Ting wanted to use western medicine, the brother wanted to go traditional Chinese. Obviously, Ting won.
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